9am Briefing: Forth Ports agrees to £760m takeover

FORTH Ports today announced it had agreed to a £760 million takeover offer by its largest shareholder, Arcus European Infrastructure Fund, after a 10 per cent rise in profits.

The company, which owns and operates seven commercial UK ports including Leith, said Arcus, which has a 23.5 per cent stake in the company, would pay 1,630 pence per Forth Ports share it does not already own, plus a dividend of 20 pence per share.

Forth Ports today reported an underlying pretax profit of 36.6m for 2010.

• THE SNP has been accused of breaching rules by planning to sign the main contract for the new Forth Road Bridge during the campaign for the Holyrood elections.

The accusation by Labour and the Greens comes after Finance Secretary John Swinney yesterday named the preferred bidder for the project as the Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors, and revealed the cost of the new crossing had dropped from 2.3 billion to just over 1.6 billion.

• STUDENTS are to march to Holyrood today in a bid to put higher education at the forefront of Scottish Parliament election campaigns.

The action takes place on the last day of business at Holyrood before the elections on May 5.