Homes and Property | Home PageRaiders line up assault on P&OLisa Buckingham12 April 2012P&O, the shipping and ports group led by Lord Sterling, has been targeted for takeover by a group of venture capitalists.Tim Harris, former heir apparent to Sterling and now chairman of shipping group James Fisher, is believed to have been approached by investors with plans to mount a £2bn assault.Harris quit P&O in May last year after a row over strategy and Sterling's reluctance to give up control. The peer has headed P&O since 1983.A major shareholder warned: 'The lack of a visible succession plan is an Achilles heel in any takeover defence.'Analysts say P&O has an underlying asset value of 295p a share, compared with Friday's 193 1/2p close.Sterling, 66, has been accused of holding on to operations too long then missing the moment to sell.The £1.5bn flotation of a container-ship joint venture with Netherlands firm Nedlloyd fell by the wayside, then he missed the chance to sell out to the Dutch company.P&O also failed to float its bulk shipping business 15 months ago when freight rates were at a 30-year high.An executive who knows P&O said: 'It is not stable, and the more apparent that becomes, the more people will become interested in it.'MORE ABOUTInvestment