Noddy's brush-off foxes Basil team

NODDY and his friend Big Ears roundly told Basil Brush to push off from Toy Town today.

Basil's owner, Entertainment Rights, had put forward a putative 252p-a-share takeover offer for Chorion, owner of Noddy and other Enid Blyton characters plus Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Chorion's board, led by chairman Lord Alli, said it had considered the £43m proposal and could not recommend it to shareholders.

Entertainment Rights said it was disappointed by that. It now has until noon tomorrow to put forward a formal hostile bid or be barred by the Takeover Panel from making an offer for the next six months.

Chief executive Mike Heap has been wooing Chorion's top insitutional shareholders over the past week to gauge their appetite for a merger between the two companies.

Meanwhile, Chorion finalised terms of a £20m deal to buy the rights to the Mr Men books from the family of the late Roger Hargreaves, which could go ahead by the end of this week.

Shares in Chorion today fell 2 1/2p to 216 1/2p while those of Entertainment Rights rose 1/4p to 13 1/4p.