	williams holdings bids mln stg for norcros industrial holding company williams holdings plc said it was bidding mln stg for the ordinary shares of building products and packaging group norcros plc the offer would be made on the basis of new williams shares for every in norcros or p a share norcros shares firmed to p at gmt from a close last night of p a statement by williams said it was confident of the merits of the proposed merger and it had therefore taken care to propose from the outset the right terms including a full cash alternative the offer will include a partial convertible alternative under which shareholders would receive up to a total of mln new second convertible shares in williams instead of their ordinary share allocations the offer for norcros preferential shares offers one williams preferential share for each one of norcros for a value of p each and a total of mln stg last week williams reported that pretax profits for rose to mln stg from mln speculation about a bid for norcros had been circulating in the market for several months dealers said initially it centred on bunzl plc which once held a pct stake then switched to williams when it began accumulating shares earlier this year williams suggested holding talks with norcros on a possible merger but was rebuffed by norcros which replied that any benefits that could be achieved could also result from normal trading in the six months to end september norcros reported a rise in pretax profits to mln stg from mln on turnover that lifted to mln from mln williams holdings began expanding from when it had a market capitalisation of around one mln stg a series of uisitions in the next four years has pushed its capitalisation up to around mln the convertible offer would be on the basis of four williams convertibles for every norcros share worth p a share the cash alternative would offer the equivalent of p a share the announcement of the bid pushed williams share price down to p from last night s close at p williams said it held a total shares in norcros or pct while an associate held a further mln or pct there was no immediate response from norcros reuter 
