Glassmaker the Quinn Group has made an offer for the parts of rival Ardagh that the company plans to demerge. The private company, run by Mr Sean Quinn, made the bid in a letter to Ardagh yesterday.

Ardagh, which is listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, has yet to notify the exchange of the details of the offer which are thought to be substantially more generous than the €1.10 cash offer available to Ardagh shareholders under the company's own plan to hive off its glassmaking operations in Britain and Italy into a private company based in Guernsey.

A spokesman for Ardagh last night refused to comment on the proposal.

Since the closure of Ardagh's Irish Glass Bottle plant in Ringsend, Dublin, last year, the Quinn Group has been the only glass producer in the State. The Quinn group also has interests in the cement, leisure and insurance industries.

Analysts were last night surprised that a bid proposal to Ardagh would not have been released through the stock exchange information service in circumstances where shareholders were in the process of deciding on a rival proposal.

It is understood that the Quinn proposal is pitched at around €1.50 a share, which would indicate a 40 cent premium to the current cash offer from Ardagh to its own shareholders.

Ardagh shareholders have until January 13th to accept the company plan.

If successful, the Quinn plan would see it multiply the size of its glass-making operations. Ardagh's British subsidiary Rockware alone is three times the size of Quinn's existing glass operations and is the largest player in its domestic market. Ardagh owns Consumers Glass in Italy.

The Quinn offer will have to be assessed by independent directors at Ardagh though analysts last night said it was hard to see how such an offer would not be in the interests of ordinary shareholders. "At the end of the day €1.50 a share is better than €1.10," one person familiar with the company said last night.

However, it is unclear whether the company has already secured enough irrevocable acceptances of the present offer ensure its success. Sources close to the company said it was likely that Mr Coulson would use Yeoman's interest in Ardagh to block any bid at this level.

Ardagh chief executive Mr Eddie Kilty was reported yesterday as saying he believed the international business was worth more than the cash alternative being offered to shareholders. He indicated the board would not be inclined to look at rival bids under €5-€6 a share.

However, HgCapital, the largest shareholder in the group, has decided to accept the cash.