Boparan's knock-out Northern Foods bid

HARRY Ramsden's fish shops owner Ranjit Boparan last night tabled a £341 million recommended cash offer for Northern Foods.

The 73p-a-share bid came after the Takeover Panel extended the deadline for chicken entrepreneur Boparan either to make an offer or walk away.

Shares in Northern Foods, the maker of Goodfella's pizzas and Fox's biscuits, closed at 63p, up 4 per cent, valuing the business at just under 300m.

The offer price represents a premium of 61 per cent to the closing share price before bid interest emerged. An agreement secured earlier in the day with the trustees of Northern Foods' pension scheme on future funding plans had helped clear the way for Boparan to bid.

The board of Northern Foods said they considered Boparan's offer to be "fair and reasonable".

Boparan's approach came after Northern Foods had agreed to merge with Ireland's Greencore and to form a new company called Essenta Foods.