The Valentia consortium will post its formal offer document to Eircom shareholders this week. The consortium told the London Stock Exchange yesterday that it had met all the preconditions for making its offer. It said it expected to post the document to Eircom shareholders on Friday.

Valentia this week secured the support of the Eircom Employee Share Ownership Trust - which owns 14.9 per cent of Eircom - for its €2.99 billion (£2.35 billion) bid for the company. Some 92 per cent of the valid votes from employees were in favour of the Valentia bid and rejected the rival offer from the Eisland consortium.