Underlining the fact that compared with New York and London, continental stock exchanges are relatively immature in the ins and outs of handling takeover bids for public companies, the battle for Telemecanique SA of Paris is approaching the level of farce: last week, Framatome SA wanted to increase its offer to 5,400F but was overruled by its biggest shareholders; now Schneider SA, which launched the original bid, wants to withdraw its own offer of the same amount, with the excuse that it had never been formally accepted by the Paris Stockbrokers’ Association, and instead offer 5,000F for all shares tendered now, and 5,500F for all shares tendered in one year’s time.
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