Takeover offer for Wembley firm

The new stadium holds 90,000 people

Multiplex, the developer of Wembley Stadium, has received a $6.1bn (£3.1bn) takeover offer from the Canada-based Brookfield Asset Management.

In a statement, Multiplex said that its directors supported the all-cash offer.

The Australian firm lost about £143m before tax on the 90,000-seater Wembley which opened last month - more than two years late.

It had taken on the £757m Wembley contract on a fixed-price basis and was caught out by soaring prices.

Brookfield manages assets worth about $50bn - and is one of Manhattan's biggest landlords of office property.

It already holds about 4% of Multiplex's shares and must get more than 50% for the takeover to succeed.

Multiplex blamed 600 design changes for the delays at Wembley, which was scheduled to open in 2005.

But the stadium's owners, Wembley National Stadium Limited, laid the blame for the redevelopment problems firmly at the door of the Australian firm.