Appeal for more time in £1bn telecoms firm battle

They are reportedly concerned at the flow of information from the telecoms firm before Thursday’s “put up or shut up” deadline from the Takeover Panel.

Troubled C&W Worldwide has fixed telephone lines that can be used to relieve pressure on mobile networks.

Cable & Wireless’s Yorkshire connections date back to its takeover of its smaller rival Energis in 2005, which had an office in Leeds. Today, the company has around 250 staff at a data centre in Leeds.

The firm provides high-speed telecoms services to the police and companies such as Tesco and Next.

It also has an international cable network connecting more than 150 countries, as well as five offices and 150 customers in India, which analysts have said could be of particular interest to Tata Communications.

Bankers in both bid camps are said by the Sunday Telegraph to be ready to ask the panel to extend the date by which each must make an offer for the 160-year-old British firm or walk away for the next six months.

This follows a slump in C&W Worldwide’s share price in recent months after three profit warnings and a series of top-level boardroom changes.

The company has been impacted by the squeeze on Government spending and the weak economy, leading it to report heavy losses for the six months to September 30 and warn of no dividend payments in order to bolster its balance sheet.

As well as tough trading conditions, chief executive Gavin Darby said last month that the business telecoms firm was over complex and blighted by under-investment.

Vodafone, which was sitting on a huge cash pile of £7bn at the end of September, announced last month it was mulling an approach for CWW.

If Tata is successful, it would mark the latest in a string of British acquisitions by the Indian firm as it already owns Jaguar Land Rover and steelmaker Corus. A successful bid by Tata would be the biggest British acquisition by an Indian firm since sister company Tata Motors bought Jaguar Land Rover for £12bn in 2008. Tata bought steelmaker Corus for £13.1bn in 2007.