Fresh contact between Valentia and Eircom

Advisors from Eircom are expected to spend the day in meetings with the

Valentia consortium, which is one of two vying to buy the phone company.

They will want to know if the Sir Anthony O'Reilly led consortium is willing

to increase its offer price.

On Friday Valentia did secure the backing of the employee share ownership trust. However the price on offer is 100m euros short of that being offered by Denis O'Brien.

With the backing of ESOT Valentia is thought to be in a much stronger

position.

However, it is thought highly unlikely that Eircom bosses would recommend a lower offer price to shareholders. An increased price would also have implications for the employee share ownership trust as it would find it more expensive to buy its 29.9% stake in the company.