Alphyra takeover bid in trouble

ATTEMPTS by Alphyra, the electronic payments firm taken private by management last year, to acquire British company PayPoint have run into trouble.

The Irish firm announced yesterday that it had agreed to buy a majority stake in PayPoint from its existing owners, which includes British Telecom and EDF Energy, a subsidiary of French utility company Electricité de France. It said the British firm is valued at €116 million and was also seeking to make an offer to the remaining shareholders.

However, PayPoint, Britain's leading network for collecting payments, says the offer to buy the 52% stake held by BT and EDF is too low.