In a defence document issued today, the board of hotels group, Thistle, has confirmed it still believes BIL International's 115p per share offer for the company is wholly inadequate and opportunistic.

Thistle claims that BIL's offer represents only 39p per share for Thistle's non-cash assets, adjusting for the company's gross cash balances of £367m equivalent to 76p per share.

It also asserts that the offer represents a 9 per cent discount to the group's 12-month average share price of about 126p.

The offer is further seen as being an attempt to capitalise on the current low point in the hotels sector caused by economic uncertainty and the war in Iraq.

The document also indicates that Thistle is considering a return of about 50p per share in cash to shareholders.

Chair, David Newbigging said: Shareholders are urged to follow the board's advice to reject BIL's inadequate offer.

In response, BIL - which already holds a 45.8 per cent stake in Thistle - said its offer embodied full and fair value and represented certain cash value of 115p per share plus a 29 per cent premium to Thistle's share price at the end of January.

It claims that Thistle took six years to recover from the downturn in performance after the previous Gulf War in 1991 and that any recovery from the current uncertainty could take even longer.

BIL's response also maintains that Thistle faces a worsening competitive environment which will hamper any potential recovery.

Further, it says the company has historically underperformed, with its return on shareholders' funds having fallen by 58.5 per cent between 1998 and 2002 and its number of owned operated or managed properties having fallen by about 44 per cent over the same period.

Finally, Thistle's shareholders are said to be guaranteed certain cash from BIL against Thistle's uncertain future.

BIL chief executive, Arun Amarsi, said: I firmly believe that BIL is offering Thistle shareholders the opportunity to realise a cash exit at a full and fair value from an investment that in our opinion has failed to perform and that is facing an increasingly uncertain outlook. Details: www.thistle.co.uk or www.leisureopportunities.co.uk and type 'Thistle' into the news search engine.