Previously the consortium had set the acceptance level at 95 per cent.

To reach the required 50 per cent acceptance level, it would need to buy out one of the top three shareholders.

The last acceptance level it disclosed was less than 1 per cent.

The vote on the cash offer will require an acceptance level of 75 per cent by value, which some analysts suggested was not a foregone conclusion.

But even then their acceptance level was way above everyone else's.