Forth Ports talks to bid consortium

Tilbury port owner Forth Ports today agreed to talk to Northstream, the consortium of investors that wants to take control of the company.

Forth's chief executive, Charles Hammond, said: "We have agreed to meet the consortium, but only in their capacity as shareholders. We will present our growth plans to them."

Hammond dismissed Northstream's approaches, and said the board unanimously rejected the £612 million offer from the consortium — made up of Deutsche Bank's RREEF, infrastructure investors Arcus, and Peel Group — because "it fell far short of Forth Ports' value".

His comments came as Forth said pre-tax profit in 2009 fell 9% to £33.2 million, as the recession saw traffic through its seven British ports dropping slightly to 45.8 million tons.

Hammond described the results as a "robust performance from a ports business in a difficult economic situation".

Forth Ports said it would get extra business this year from the 2012 Olympics, and today announced it had agreed to provide warehousing space for the Games, storing goods ranging from table tennis bats to the fleet of BMWs transporting people to and from the site.