Babcock takeover of Peterhouse gets go ahead

Babcock International has won its high-profile £96m take-over battle to acquire Peterhouse Group.

The move had been fought all the way by David Jackson, Peterhouse chairman and founder, who said it undervalued the group. "I won't be fighting any more," he said. "I will be going after we have negotiated my compensation."

The cliff-hanger of a take-over had run for two months and was set to end at 1pm today, with Stock Exchange rules forbidding any further extension.

Babcock's financial advisers were reported to have become frantic as even my mid-day last Friday the total acceptances had barely moved forwards from the 47% figure achieved at the end of the second offer period a fortnight ago.

But Babcock's backers battled on and over the weekend their perseverance paid off as one major shareholder switched sides. As a result, a Stock Exchange announcement was posted at 8.30am, less than five hours from the final deadline, to say that it was a done deal as a result of Babcock winning 51.4% of Peterhouse shares.

Gordon Campbell, chairman of Babcock, said: "Peterhouse now has a bigger and stronger balance sheet and has the security of Babcock's long-term defence contracts."