THE £2.8 billion takeover battle for Southampton's Associated British Ports looked to be near its conclusion today after a rival bidder pulled out of the running.

The withdrawal leaves a consortium led by Goldman Sachs in prime position to land the company, which operates 21 ports in the UK, including Southampton.

The US investment bank sparked the takeover battle in March with an offer worth £2.2 billion, but that increased to £2.8 billion last week because of the interest of a consortium headed by Australian bank Macquarie.

Macquarie has now told AB Ports that it does not intend to make a formal offer for the group after Goldman's latest bid, worth 910p a share last week.

Speculation had been rife that it would withdraw from the race after one of its partners, private equity firm 3i, pulled out last Friday.

Only the emergence of another bidder is likely to prevent Goldman's offer for AB Ports from being successful.

It is too early to say yet how the takeover will impact upon Southampton, where more than 820 people are directly employed under the ABP name.

A further 750 or so people work for container handler SCT, which is half-owned by ABP.

The other half is owned by Dubai's DP World, which gave pension assurances to SCT staff during its £4 billion acquisition of port operator P&O earlier this year.

Southampton is the fourth largest port in the UK, handling seven per cent of all UK trade and generating business worth £2 billion annually.

The gateway port also directly supports between 10,000 and 12,000 jobs.