Just as the markets were closing on Friday, along came Cable & Wireless to surprise everyone by revealing the detail of its offer for Thus and setting a deadline of late June for acceptance.

To those of us used to covering drawn-out takeover affairs, the incredibly short courtship of Thus by C&W is refreshing. There is very little romance, however, in stating how much you fancy someone then telling them that if they don’t marry you within four weeks, you’re off.

Just over a week has passed since C&W signalled it might make a bid, so setting a deadline of June 30 and revealing the bid price of 165p makes it clear that it is in no mood to hang about if Thus continues to play hard to get.

It also suggests C&W sees 165p as the right price. Thus’s tactic until now has been to virtually ignore C&W’s offer but Friday’s move prompted a fulsome defence of its strategy.

As you would expect, it included a repetition of its belief in an independent future but also made a clear indication that to get Thus talking, C&W will have to significantly increase the amount it wants to pay. That looks unlikely.

Given that the conversations between the two over the past week have been rather short and to the point, it is clear Thus sees no value in substantive discussions at this level but the ball is firmly in its court.

Thus’s argument for a much higher price is that it believes its investment in next-generation network and customer contracts would be critical to maximising the potential of C&W in the UK.

It said its net assets value, reflecting the investment made in its advanced next-generation network, was £461m at the end of March this year, which would equate to approximately 252 pence per share. Not all telecoms companies would use this method to determine value but Thus went on to say that Cable & Wireless is undervaluing the benefit of synergies, which may well be the case.

In short: give us heaps more cash or we’re not talking at all.

That is understandable. As I said last week, there are few obvious attractions to Thus in selling at this stage but the truth is that may not matter. Its shareholders may look at the 165p offer and ponder whether Bill Allan’s standalone strategy will deliver anything better in the near future.

There are lots of other telecoms companies waiting to be snapped up as consolidation gets going and there are really only two big fishes in this pond — BT and C&W. Therefore C&W does not specifically need this takeover, which is why it has set a deadline.

I still believe that Thus has a future as an independent Scottish company but it now falls to Allan and his board to convince its shareholders that that remains the best option.

ProStrakan's year

ProStrakan’s share price is becoming a regular feature on these pages and for a very good reason. Last week it jumped 20% on the back of some more good news about Sancuso, the patch which helps cancer patients tackle nausea associated with chemotherapy.

The Food and Drug Administration in the United States said it had no outstanding issues about Sancuso and with its review at a very advanced stage, ProStrakan said it was confident of gaining US approval for Sancuso in the next few weeks.

The US is potentially a huge market for ProStrakan. This is turning into the big year for the Borders company.

Combine harvest

The Invisible Man has been, well, invisible of late. Nicol Stephen is of course rather busy doing two jobs — leading the Lib Dems and hounding the first minister at question time. That second job should be Wendy Alexander’s as leader of the official opposition but she is too busy trying to prevent the Scottish Labour party doing its own disappearing act and she’s having no luck with that one.

So with Nicol exhausted after all this work, it falls to others in his party to look daft when it comes to business and enterprise. The good news is there has been no shortage of candidates.

Step forward Orkney MSP Liam McArthur. He was outraged last week to discover that Lena Wilson, the new head of inward investment body Scottish Development International, is another person doing two jobs. According to Liam, the post is going to be split “between SDI and Scottish Enterprise”.

Well, Liam, sorry to break the news but SDI has always been part of Scottish Enterprise and saving a load of dosh by combining Wilson’s roles is a good thing, in my opinion.

Mind you, I hear that SDI is splashing out £250,000 on a three-day bash at Dunblane next week to introduce Wilson to the rest of the SDI network. About 80 of the 200 delegates are coming from abroad and if their flights are longer than seven hours, then it is business class all the way. Surely a barbie outside Atlantic Quay would have sufficed?

The agency says costs have been covered from regular budgets and not taken from frontline delivery or other parts of SE. In the past year, a total of 68 projects saw new capital investment of £274m — up on the previous year. Who ran SDI last year? Wilson, while still doing her other job at SE. Go figure, Liam.

john.penman@sunday-times.co.uk

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