The multimillion-pound take-over bid for Hull City Council's Kingston Communications by the Carlyle Group is officially off, after months of speculation. Rumours began circulating last month that talks between the two companies had stalled, due to a lack of progress with the council. The US private equity firm made an approach in November, but Kingston Communications announced last week, in its trading statement, that talks had broken down because ‘the parties failed to agree on price and structure'. Hull City Council owns 31% of the telecommunications company and by law, any organisation holding more than 30% of the equity in a company has to give its consent to a takeover. The three-member shareholding committee was responsible for making a final decision about selling the council's interest but no decision was forthcoming. A statement issued on behalf of the committee said: ‘We have noted the comments of the Kingston Communications board about the final outcome of these discussions and understand the board's decision.' The council made £245m from Kingston Communications' original floatation in 1999. A spokesman for Carlyle Group declined to comment.
