The move has put pressure on the company's chairman and founder Paul Reichmann to put his money where his mouth is and come up with a better price. In a statement yesterday Reichmann said: " I am proposing to continue with the endeavours, which I have recently began, to form a consortium with a view to its making an offer to the shareholders of the company at a level in excess of that reflected in the offers received so far. I have therefore concluded that it would be appropriate and proper that, while remaining an executive director of the company, I should temporarily step aside from my duties as chairman of the board."

But it is by no means certain that Reichmann will be able to fund a higher bid, and as a result the directors are already preparing plan B—a sale of assets to reduce the company's debt mountain. Sir Martin Jacomb, who takes over from Reichmann as chairman, said: "The company will implement in an orderly way some asset disposals, while maintaining the integrity and overall control of the estate. In this way weshall be in a position to reduce overall leverage."

And in more bad news for Canary Wharf, the company had to admit to the Stock Exchange yesterday that two key tenants have begun the process of handing back more than 500,000 sf of space to the landlord. Barclays Bank has decided it will only occupy 683,000 sf in its million-sf headquarters at One Churchill Place, leasing back 330,000 sf to Canary Wharf for terms varying between five and 15 years.