Macquarie, the Australian bank, has gone head-to-head with Goldman Sachs in the fight for control of Associated British Ports after saying it could at least match the US bank's latest £2.6bn (€3.8bn) offer for the UK ports operator.

ABP said this morning it had received a pre-conditional takeover proposal from a consortium led by Macquarie worth at least 840p per share in cash. An offer at that price would match a sweetened bid this morning from Goldman Sachs.