Irish Continental Group's (ICG) senior management will most probably have to dip into their savings if today's deadline in the long-running takeover saga expires without any movement from either Aella or Moonduster.

Chief executive Eamonn Rothwell, finance director Garry O'Dea, marketing chief Tony Kelly and secretary Tom Corcoran - all members of the Aella bid vehicle - have share options which should have been exercised in March.

Originally, the options were to be rolled over into Aella's offer for the ferry company, which was launched on March 8th. Moonduster's counterbid and the recent stalemate in the offer process meant that the options were effectively put on ice.

If today's 5pm deadline passes without either Aella or Moonduster blinking, then the likelihood is that the Takeover Panel will deem the offer period to have ended, and both sides could be precluded for 12 months from making any further offer for ICG.

If that scenario plays out, Rothwell and his colleagues will have to exercise their options. Rothwell has 150,000 options, which will cost him €795,000 to exercise. O'Dea will have to spend €198,750 to buy his 37,500 shares, while Kelly must pay €265,000 to exercise his 50,000 options. Corcoran must fork out €53,000 to purchase his 10,000 shares.

With ICG's shares trading at €25 a pop, the management team are sitting on massive paper profits. In Rothwell's case, the gain would be almost €3 million.

Aella is also in line to receive up to €4.7 million in compensation from ICG if the offer period ends.

Rothwell struck a deal with ICG in March that would give it compensation of up to 1 per cent of its original €471 million bid if Aella's offer was trumped by a third party or was no longer recommended by the independent directors, which is currently the case. This is to compensate Aella for expenses incurred.