A planned £400 million takeover of Telent, the rump of Marconi, the fallen telecoms group, is under threat after its suitor successfully applied to have the deal put on hold.

Pension Corporation (PC), a Guernsey-based retirement fund consolidator, has secured from the Takeover Panel a seven-day delay to its bid to acquire the telecoms equipment maker, which supplies companies and the public sector in Britain, Ireland and Germany.

PC, which bids for companies with big pension schemes in the hope of seizing control and running them more efficiently, sought the delay after an unprecedented intervention in the deal from the Pensions Regulator late last week.

The regulator used special powers to quickly install three independent trustees on the board of the £2.5 billion Telent fund.

The move, made at the behest of the existing fund trustees, was aimed at safeguarding the pensions of the 62,000 people covered by it.

The intervention left the three new trustees in charge of decision-making at the fund for the next six months, and prevents PC taking control of the trustee company. PC, for whom the move constituted a setback, is now weighing up whether to proceed with the deal. Charlotte Crosswell, a partner in PC, said: “We can either proceed with the deal this time next week or decide not to.”

Co-Investment Number 5 LP, a Guernsey-based partnership backed by PC, owns 29 per cent of Telent shares and is “obviously keen to proceed”, she said. “However, because of the situation that has come up, we have had to seek this extra week to get clarity.” PC wants time to discuss with the new trustees their investment strategy and attitude to risk.

The group added that it was “not our place to object” to the intervention by the Pensions Regulator.

The agreed delay pushes the deadline by which PC must announce the level of acceptances on its 600p-per-share cash offer and whether it is to extend the offer to October 31.

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