On Friday the Panel failed to declare whether WPD, a joint venture between US groups PPL Corp and Southern Energy, or Japanese investment bank Nomura International was the highest bidder for Hyder, because of a dispute over sealed bids.

Sources said the Panel will have three options. It can ignore Nomura's appeal and pronounce WPD the winner, order resubmission of sealed bids, or declare WPD's efforts null and void and declare Nomura the highest bidder.The takeover regulator said late on Friday its request for sealed bids yielded a response only from WPD, which bid 365 pence per Hyder share to trump a previous offer of 360 pence by Nomura.Sources said Nomura had refused to revise its earlier bid as it did not agree on a `sealed bid' process as it feared it would not offer fair shareholder value to Hyder shareholders."A meeting of the full panel to consider this appeal will beheld as soon as possible," the panel said following its meeting with both parties, which ended just before midnight on Friday.The Welsh group responded on Monday morning saying: "Until further announcements are forthcoming, the board of Hyder advises shareholders to take no action."A Hyder spokesman said they decided against requesting that its shares be suspended pending clarification of the position after the panel put out its official statement giving an opportunity to Hyder to respond."Now the shareholders know where they stand so we did not request it (suspension in trade)," he said.

Hyder's shares were trading 17 pence or 4.4 per cent down at367-1/2P At 1130 GMT.WPD's 365 pence per share bid values Hyder at around 565 million pounds ($849.9 million). With debt of 1.8 billion pounds, it stamps an enterprise value of 2.37 billion pounds on Hyder.

The Takeover Panel did not elaborate on Friday's discussions but industry sources said that Nomura had protested after WPD delayed submitting its final sealed bid, the deadline for which was 1200 GMT on Friday.Although WPD's bid had reached the panel before the deadline, it then had to be resubmitted by its advisers and this meant a slight delay in getting the formal bid in.Hyder owns Dwr Cymru (Welsh Water), the regulated supplier of water and waste water services to most of Wales, and electricity distributor South Wales Electricity (Swalec). It also provides business support and consultancy services.UBS Warburg is advising Hyder while Schroder Salomon SmithBarney is adviser to WPD.