Put Up Or Shut Up

Quintain Estates & Development, the property company that owns land around Wembley Arena and the old Millennium Dome site, wants the HBOS banking group to either put up or shut up over its bid to buy the company.

HBOS, which was formed by a merger of mortgage lender Halifax Plc. and Bank Of Scotland, made a stealthy move for Quintain by buying the 11.9 percent stake owned by property entrepreneur and Tottenham Hotspur director Paul Kemsley.

It also reportedly hired investment bankers Merrill Lynch to look at what its next move should be, but Quintain says there hasn’t been a next move and has asked the Takeover Panel to intervene because the current uncertainty is unsettling investors.

"Since they put us into an offer period we have heard nothing," Quintain chairman John Plender told U.K. newspapers. "They have not responded to our request to discuss an offer. This is a very active time for Quintain.

"We are concerned that a protracted period of uncertainty will be detrimental to the company and have requested the panel to set a deadline for HBOS," he explained as his company’s share price slid a little more than 10 pence to 902 pence.