1.   An agreed bid may give more scope for a due diligence investigation by the offeror or its accountants before the offeror commits itself.

2.   It is the first agreed bid.

3.   Another regional electric company, Southern Electric PLC, quickly said it was in talks with Southern Water that it hopes will lead to an agreed bid.

4.   Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Chairman Robert E. Cawthorn said his company had met several times with Fisons in hopes of gaining an agreed bid.

5.   That had beaten two earlier agreed bids from PacifiCorp, a utility holding company based in Portland, Oregon, but PacifiCorp quickly moved back into the fray.

6.   The newspaper and television group United News and Media announced an agreed bid for the Blenheim exhibition organiser on Tuesday.

7.   ScottishPower made its offer after it failed to secure an agreed bid last weekend despite two months of negotiations.

8.   The market was wondering whether the agreed bid would be approved by the government before the national elections.