Greencore quits race for Northern

The biggest maker of sandwiches for the UK market abandoned its pursuit of Northern Foods yesterday after admitting it was unable to trump a rival bid for the Fox's biscuits maker.

The withdrawal of Dublin-based Greencore leaves the way clear for the owner of Harry Ramsden's fish restaurants - Ranjit Singh Boparan - to secure Northern with a 342 million offer.

Greencore, which makes own label sandwiches and chilled convenience food for the UK's biggest supermarket chains, spent several weeks working on a deal in conjunction with an unnamed party, thought to be a private equity firm.

The involvement of a partner would have enabled Greencore to acquire just the parts of Northern that best matched its own operations.

Greencore said yesterday: "This relatively complex structure required a range of stakeholders to reach agreement.

"However, after substantial investigation, the board has determined that an improved offer could not be concluded on terms which would deliver sufficiently strong returns to Greencore shareholders."

Leeds-based Northern, the firm behind Goodfella's pizza and the world's oldest Christmas pudding maker Matthew Walker, agreed a merger with Greencore last year before switching allegiance to Boparan. Boparan's holding firm urged Northern Foods shareholders to accept its recommended cash offer by a closing date of 16 March. It revealed that it yesterday acquired 63,794,202 shares in the food manufacturer, representing 13.61 per cent, at 73p per share.