Universal Salvage says bid talks end

LONDON (Reuters) - Vehicle salvage and auction services company Universal Salvage Plc UVS.L said talks about a possible takeover at 200 pence per share had ended, knocking its shares on Friday.

On February 2, Universal Salvage said it had received a preliminary approach valuing it at 57 million pounds. The announcement pushed its share price to a 56-month high at 197 pence at the time.

A company spokeswoman would not say on Friday who had ended the talks or why they had broken down.

The Bedfordshire-based firm, which scraps written-off cars and auctions damaged vehicles bought from insurance companies, posted a pretax profit of 900,000 pounds for the six months to end-October on turnover up 28 percent at 32.6 million pounds. In 2005/06 it made a first-half pretax loss of 720,000 pounds.

At 10:00 a.m., shares in the company were down 2.4 percent at 180 pence.