Whitbread up on talk of Accor bid interest: traders
Shares in Whitbread jumped as much as 3.7 percent to 1,946 pence on Thursday on renewed bid talk in the market, with traders now citing speculation that French group Accor was likely to bid.
Traders cited talk of a 2,400 pence bid likely for Whitbread. Whitbread declined comment.
Shares in Accor were up 0.8 percent in a strong market. Whitbread's shares were among the top gainers in the FTSE 100 index, which was up 0.8 percent.
By 0830 GMT, more than 1.4 million Whitbread shares were traded, compared with average full-day volume of 3.48 million shares traded over the past 30 days.
Last week, shares in Whitbread were boosted by talk that U.S. property investor Starwood Capital was about to launch an offer for the company. The sector got a boost after private equity group Blackstone agreed to buy Hilton Hotels.
(Published by Reuters, July 19, 2007)