Jungheinrich to bid for Lancer Boss

JUNGHEINRICH, the German forklift company that bought Lancer Boss's Bavarian subsidiary amid great controversy, says it expects to bid for the British part of the collapsed group on Tuesday.

Robert Bischof, chairman of Jungheinrich GB, said he would visit the group's top management at the Hanover Fair on Monday, 'and I hope to write an offer letter the next day'. The group's accountants, Arthur Andersen, carried out due diligence checking, a vital precursor to a bid, at Lancer Boss's Leighton Buzzard factories this week.

However, Grant Thornton, the British receivers, say they are talking to a number of interested parties, and that it is not a foregone conclusion that Jungheinrich will win. 'We will have a reasonable idea of the preferred buyer by the end of next week,' said Allan Griffiths, a Grant Thornton partner.

An observer said the Leighton Buzzard offices were 'crawling with accountants' carrying out due diligence inquiries.

One of the bidders is believed to have more than a dozen people working on an offer, while a management buy-in team backed by Pruventures, the Prudential's venture capital arm, is still interested. The team made an offer for the whole company in late March; it was still on the table when Lancer Boss was forced into receivership on 8 April.

Mr Bischof said that if Jungheinrich's offer was topped, the company would consider counter-bidding, 'but it is only viable at a certain price: the company needs quite a lot of investment'.

He said managers and workforce at the factory were like one in wanting to work for a powerful German company. He criticised the founding brothers, Sir Neville and Trevor Bowman-Shaw, for their lifestyle. 'When Jungheinrich was the size of Lancer Boss, the owners drove a Volkswagen Beetle, not a Bentley.'