ABP considering $4.5 billion offer from Goldman Sachs consortium

ABP considering $4.5 billion offer from Goldman Sachs consortium    A consortium headed by Goldman Sachs have made an improved '2.4 billion ($4.5 billion) offer for the United Kingdom’s biggest port group, Associated British Ports Holdings.
   The consortium also includes the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and Canadian pension fund Borealis Infrastructure.
   The sweetened '8.10 ($15.24) per-share non-binding offer beats a '7.30 ($13.73) per-share preliminary takeover offer made late-March by the consortium, which ABP rejected as “wholly inadequate.”
   “The board has agreed to grant the consortium a limited period to undertake confirmatory due diligence. A further announcement will be made as and when appropriate,” said ABP today about the latest offer.
   ABP handled 129.3 million tons of cargo at its 21 British ports in 2005, giving it about 23 percent of the U.K. market share. The company is also the parent company of American auto-processing company AMPORTS, which has six port facilities in the United States: in Jacksonville, Fla.; Brunswick, Ga.; Benicia, Calif.; and three facilities in Baltimore, Md.
   ABP’s share price on the London Stock Exchange was '7.69 ($14.47) at 1 p.m. local time today, up 14.7 percent from Monday’s closing price.