The gestures signalled a level of mutual respect and seriousness which was nowhere to be seen two weeks ago when the consortium accused the independent directors of withholding materially important information that the management buy-out team . . . the consortium's rivals to take ICG private . . . otherwise had access to.

That disagreement now appears to have been resolved and the due diligence phase of the takeover process is expected come to a close this week with a new update by the consortium. The consortium has not revealed what the announcement will concern, but sources close to the process said it would probably table an offer shortly at 20.75 per share or above and that management was unlikely to counter.

The MBO team initially proposed a takeover at 18.50 per share.

Apart from the flare-up over access to confidential information, the due diligence process has been fairly muted. But rumours have circulated among industry observers that One51-Doyle was not serious about ultimately making an offer and had backed itself into a corner with a bid that was too rich to attract a thirdparty bail-out.

According to this scenario, the consortium's unusual public complaint about the independent directors would serve as a plausible cover story if they eventually backed out after spending nearly 100m to acquire a 20% share in ICG.

The consensus after Thursday's statement by the consortium, however, is that an offer is inevitable.