THE boards of Waterford Co-op and Waterford Foods meet today in Dungarvan to assess the £281 million takeover bid by Avonmore, writes Mary Canniffe.

Avonmore adviser, IBI Corporate Finance, has replied to a series of questions from Waterford adviser NCB Corporate Finance, seeking clarification of details of the Avonmore offer. The responses will be considered today by the two boards.

At an eight-and-a-half hour meeting of the Waterford Co-op board on April 18th, a decision was taken to seek clarification of almost all aspects of the offer. A series of questions were put under a number of headings including proposals on milk prices, the financial and representative structures and trading relationships.

The co-op owns 68 per cent of the publicly-quoted company. The 35-member co-op board has to make a recommendation to its 5,500 farmers members on the deal. For the merger to proceed, 75 per cent of the members who vote must approve the deal.