THE board of Lyons Irish Holdings, which has reiterated its opposition to Unilever's offer to buy out the minority shareholders in the company, has said that it will strongly oppose any effort to cancel Lyons's stock market listing if the minority shareholders reject the Unilever offer.

While noting that Unilever has not given any indication that it plans to instigate such a delisting, the Lyons board emphasises that there is a valid basis for the continued listing of Lyons shares, even if some shareholders accept the Unilever offer.

Unilever currently holds 75 per cent of Lyons shares and if some of the minority shareholders accept its offer, it would mean that the 25 per cent free floating shares required for a listing would not exist. The board says that there is a number of examples of companies listed on the Irish market with fewer than 25 per cent of the shares in public hands.

The board has reminded shareholders that, having declared its 323.3p per share offer final, Unilever cannot make a higher offer for another six months. "If you reject the offer, you will be choosing to remain as a minority shareholder in LIH for some time," the chairman, Mr Pierce Butler, states.

The Lyons board - advised by KPMG Corporate Finance - has emphasised that the Unilever offer is out of line with the market and particularly takes no account of the rise in the ISEQ Overall Index since Unilever bought the Allied Domecq stake last January. On the basis of the rise in the Irish market since then, the Lyons board suggests that the Unilever offer that would apply if it was adjusted in line with the rise in the ISEQ index would be 381.4p.