Australian group make bid for eircom

The Australian investment group Babcock and Brown is making a takeover bid for eircom in conjunction with ESOT - eircom's employee shareownership trust.

The Australian group has already built up a 28.8 % holding in the company after sharebuying in recent months.

ESOT holds 21.8 % of the company.

Babcock and Brown indicated earlier this year they intended to launch a takeover bid for eircom.

At the time they said they would be committed to investing in improving the telecommunications infrastructure here rather than engaging in profit taking.

The takeover offer is in the region of €2.36bn which values shares at €2.20.

Two years ago shares were trading at €1.55.