ING Barings is advising Distefora Holding, a Swiss information technology company, on its €55.5m bid for the Amsterdam-based AND International Publishers.

Distefora with a market cap of €1.3bn, has said it is prepared to pay 30% to 50% more than AND's Friday closing price of €1.6 per share. Distefora has not received AND's support for the offer, according to Chris Elliss, a managing director at ING Barings. AND's revenues were €34m for the full calendar year 1999. It is not known who is advising AND on the deal.