AMSTERDAM, 15/10/05 - Among bourse-listed companies, small companies in particular are likely to be taken over, according to investment bank SNS Securities. It has drawn up a list of 15 bourse-listed companies with the biggest chance of being bought.

Brokerage Bever heads the most-wanted list, followed by chips tester Rood Testhouse, plastics manufacturer Nyloplast, publisher Brill and machinery maker Nedap. Next come trading company Reesink, fireproof materials manufacturer Gouda Vuurvast, window-coverings company Blydenstein Willink, Van der Hoop Bankiers, Internet company Tie, dispenser systems producer Airspray, maritime concern Hes, software companies Hitt and Blue Fox and installation concern Batenburg.

SNS Securities bases its selection on 10 indicators. These include size of sales, price/earnings ratio (the value of the company as a derivative of its expected earnings) and the age of the chairman. All the companies have a market value of over 5 million euros.

SNS concludes that 99 Dutch bourse-listed companies have been taken over since 1994. It also notes that a growing number of companies have given up their bourse listing. Although the number has declined somewhat since 2002, between seven and 10 companies are still disappearing from the bourse annually, according to SNS.

SNS also calculated that buyers on average paid a premium of 17.4 percent on the bourse valuation on the day of the bid. This premium rises to over 30 percent based on the average trading price of the company's shares in the year prior to the bid.?