Financier Mr Dermot Desmond recently built a substantial position in Powerscreen shares, only to sell the bulk of the shares purchased shortly afterwards. Mr Desmond's company, Bottin Investments, recently purchased around 10 per cent of Powerscreen's total shares but sold over 9 per cent again, according to information supplied to the company under Stock Exchange rules. Given the requirement to make quick disclosures of such transactions, the sale of the shares appears to have happened fairly quickly after their purchase.

The share dealings were disclosed by Powerscreen to the exchanges in Dublin and London. As a result of the transactions, Bottin Investments now holds 900,000 Powerscreen shares, representing 0.97 per cent of the company's equity.

By purchasing 10 per cent of the shares, Mr Desmond, held close to the 13.1 per cent of acceptances secured by the US engineering group Terex for its €277 million (£181 million) bid for the company. That bid must be accepted by 50 per cent of Powerscreen's shareholders before tomorrow . Market sources have indicated that Terex may seek an extension to that time requirement to secure the necessary approval.

Mr Desmond's move into the market has led to some speculation that he may have considered making a counter-bid, or building a share position substantial enough to block the Terex move.

Had Botting Investments purchased above 12 per cent of the shares, and if the price rose above the 215p sterling per share level, then Mr Desmond's investment vehicle may have been able to launch a bid for the Northern Ireland-based engineering company. At 215p sterling those shareholders who had given an irrevocable undertaking to support the Terex bid would have been released from that position and could, if they chose, back a counter bid.

Some market sources suggest that Mr Desmond may have decided to abort his takeover plans after failing to secure sufficient support from Powerscreen's shareholder base for his bid.

Powerscreen's shares have been unchanged in Dublin at 191p sterling for the past couple of weeks. Last week in London the shares traded in a range of between 191p and 193p sterling.

Earlier this month, Mr Desmond, made an unexpected bid to stop Unidare buying a US oil supplier for $60 million (€58.08 million). Another of his investment vehicles, Beechworth International, holds 26.6 per cent of the shares of the engineering group. And Mr Desmond's International Investment & Underwriting Ltd (IIU) recently purchased a 2.38 per cent stake in Unidare bringing his total interest in the company to more than 29 per cent. Mr Desmond, along with venture capitalist Mr Pierce Casey, failed narrowly to block Unidare's acquisition winning 48.3 per cent of the company backing while 51.7 per cent voted with the board in favour of the acquisition.

The sale of Powerscreen to Terex brings an end to the long-running saga of difficulties at the company.