THE chief executive of industrial holding firm BTR yesterday attacked

the directors of US adhesives business Norton, the target of a #1000m

takeover bid.

John Cahill said the Norton board wanted to ''entrench itself and its

management, quite possibly at dire costs to shareholders''.

The board's advice to shareholders to reject BTR's bid as inadequate

was ''disappointing''.

Mr Cahill said it appeared the board had spent its time developing a

''poison pill'' defence rather than considering the offer.

Norton's ''poison pill'' -- an increasingly common way of dealing with

hostile takeovers -- is a mechanism which allows shareholders to

increase their stakes in the company if a bidder reaches a certain level

of ownership.

Under the mechanism, the bidder is not entitled to the same right as

other shareholders.

Norton had originally built in such a plan to be triggered if someone

bought 25% but it said yesterday it had amended the level to 10%.

A BTR spokesman said today the company had considerably less than the

10% level which would trigger the ''poison pill''.

Norton, based in Worcester, Massachusetts, is the 264th biggest firm

in the US. It has proved a volatile takeover target for the British

group.

Apart from its shareholding structure and strong rejection by the

board, anti-British sentiment has played a large part in the bid.

Union Jacks have been burned and demonstrations organised to fight

what the citizens and employees of Worcester see as yet another attack

on American ownership by foreign operators.

But Mr Cahill said the company would proceed with its bid to ensure

that Norton shareholders had the opportunity to act on the offer.

He urged the board and management ''to meet with us in a constructive

manner to achieve a friendly transaction that serves the best interest

of Norton, the shareholders, the employees, and the Worcester

community''.