P&O shares up amid bidding talk

Shares in P&O soared another 12% today amid speculation that a fresh bid to rival the €4.88bn offer from Dubai Ports World could be mounted.

The stock closed up 51p at 494p – well ahead of the 443p a share offered by DP World – which valued the ports and ferries group at around €5.4bn today.

Tamasek, which owns the Port of Singapore Authority, the second biggest ports group in the world, was seen as a potential counter-bidder.

The company has previously been touted as a possible suitor because adding P&O’s ports to its operations would create a valuable portfolio of terminals at many of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Today’s share price rally further boosted P&O’s chances of gaining promotion into the FTSE 100 Index – the home of London’s elite stocks – in next week’s quarterly review.

Before DP World made an approach at the end of October, shares in P&O stood at 310.25p.

It sparked weeks of rumours that other companies may launch rival offers as the prospect of a bidding war intensified.

Among those mentioned as potential suitors was Tamasek, as well as Hutchison Ports, the world’s largest operator, and Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk.

On Tuesday, P&O’s board admitted that the €4.88bn offered by state-owned DP World was too attractive to turn down.

It signalled the end of 168 years of independence for the iconic shipping brand, which carried cargo throughout the British Empire in its heyday.

A link-up with DP World would create one of the world’s top three ports companies with sites around the world.

P&O operates 29 container terminals and logistics operations in more than 100 ports, while it also runs ferries between the UK and France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and Spain.

DP World has ports in locations such as Abu Dhabi, Adelaide and Busan in South Korea.