Company News In Brief

Drayton Asia, the investment trust managed by Invesco MIM, claims it is undervalued by the pounds 126m takeover bid from EFM Dragon Trust.

Drayton is preparing a more detailed rebuttal but strongly advised shareholders to take no action.

EFM Dragon claims its offer, which would create the UK's largest pure Asian trust, is worth 96.4 per cent of Drayton Asia's asset value.

Drayton Asia's largest shareholder, with a 20 per cent stake, is the British Coal Pension Funds. Paul Whitney and Barry Southcott of CIN, the pension funds' manager, are both directors of Edinburgh Fund Managers, which runs EFM Dragon.

Bucknall Group reported marginally reduced pre-tax losses of pounds 745,000 ( pounds 752,000) in the six months to 31 October on total turnover of pounds 8.2m ( pounds 8.6m).

Rentokil Group has purchased the pest control business of Bayer Portugal for pounds 1.37m. In the US it bought Green Expectations for pounds 700,000.