The bid for the Racal Electronics Plc rump that the market had been expecting duly came yesterday, but from the unexpected quarter of industrial conglomerate Williams Holdings Plc, whose prime interest is in the Chubb security and fire protection businesses, which would complement its own security operations; Williams says it would be prepared to sell on the Chubb locks business if there were monopoly worries over the locks arm of its Yale & Valor business. The bid, which looks to have little chance of success in its present form, is three Williams shares for every 20 Racal, valuing the company at UKP753m at the time of the bid, although the Williams share price quickly started shading while Racal jumped another 5.5 pence to 56 pence compared with the 54 pence or so a share value of the bid. The market expected the offer to flush out another bidder, with GEC Plc and Thorn EMI Plc among the names canvassed. Sir Ernest Harrison did have plans to demerge Chubb and is prepared to sell it at the right price, so there is the possibility that a friendly deal can be worked out where he accepts an offer for the company and buys back the non-security interests, which he has considered taking private.
