Raymarine Plc put out the following statement via the London Stock Exchange yesterday afternoon, April 8.

RAYMARINE: On 11 March 2010, the board of Raymarine (the “Board”) announced that it had received an approach which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the entire issued share capital of Raymarine at approximately 3.6 pence per share.
 
The Board notes the recent movement in the Raymarine share price and confirms that it has received two further approaches from third parties which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the entire issued share capital of Raymarine at 4.0 pence per share and 7.2 pence per share. 
 
The highest of these approaches was received from a direct competitor of Raymarine and is subject to a number of pre-conditions including, inter alia, the completion of satisfactory due diligence and securing appropriate anti-trust approvals. While the Board continues to investigate this proposal, it is the Board’s opinion, having received extensive anti-trust advice from its legal counsel, that any offer from the above mentioned direct competitor is highly likely to be subject to an in-depth review by the competition authorities and that anti-trust approval is unlikely to be secured.
 
Further, the Board believes that a protracted anti-trust approval process for a transaction with the above mentioned direct competitor would be highly damaging to Raymarine’s business, especially given the Company’s financial position and its reliance on its banking syndicate for continuing covenant waivers.
 
The Board therefore considers that the other two proposals have significantly greater likelihood of delivering value for shareholders and is continuing to investigate these proposals. However, there can be no certainty that an offer will be made nor as to the terms on which any offer might be made. 
 
This announcement has not been made with the approval of any of the potential offerors. A further announcement will be made in due course.