Such a move would free up the potentially valuable ICG's 33-acre site in Dublin Port, which is undergoing continued commercial and residential development.

Speaking at the One 51 annual general meeting last Thursday, Lynch described Greenore as "the most important deep water port between Dublin and Belfast". He said the prospect was there for One 51 to "put our hands across the border" to develop the port if One 51 and Doyle Shipping . . . its Moonduster partner . . . beat out Eamon Rothwell's management buy out team for control of ICG.

"If [Dublin City Council and the Government] want to give Dublin Port back to the people, other ports are able to take up the slack, " he said. "It's reasonable to be thinking about redistributing volume . . . there is a very interesting opportunity there going forward."

Lynch's consortium has been competing with the Rothwell group, Aella, to take ICG private since early April and speculation has focused on the value of the 33acre site from the start, with analysts saying its development potential was the key factor in the bid price topping 20 per share.

The MBO team had initially put forward a proposal at 18.50, valuing ICG at 471m, but once Moonduster started stakebuilding at 20.75, observers concluded the Dublin Port property was in play.

Some commentators pointed to last year's 17m per acre South Wharf sale of the Ardagh Glass site in the south Docklands as a gauge.

ICG officially values its Dublin Port land at only 530,000 per acre. Both Moonduster and Aella have built up 20% blocking stakes in the company and submitted formal bids at 22, leaving the process at a stalemate.

The independent directors of ICG have given both sides until Thursday to resolve the situation decisively. If they don't, their bids will lapse and both will be precluded from bidding for 12 months.

ICG stock, however, has been trading at close to 25, especially as property developer Liam Carroll has built a 17% stake of his own. Lynch's Moonduster rejected an approach by Carroll earlier this month to sell its block of shares to the developer.