Australia's Macmahon Gives up Hope on Ausdrill Bid

Macmahon Holdings effectively gave up hope on its A$499m ($396m) bid for rival mining services group Ausdrill on Thursday, admitting success was now unlikely.

Macmahon, which has drawn just 12.1% support for its offer from Ausdrill shareholders, said it would not declare the bid unconditional. This means the offer can only succeed if Macmahon attracts 50% support before 29 September.

"Macmahon believes that this is now unlikely," it said. The three-month-old hostile offer was raised last month to 1.65 Macmahon shares for every Ausdrill share.

By Sonali Paul, Reuters