A BATTLE of the buyouts is heating up as at least two attempts to save Cammell Laird's operations have been made.

Meanwhile, the former boss of the shipbuilder's operations at South Bank, on the Tees, is still hopeful that his bid for the yard will be successful.

Eric Welsh, who ran the Tees operation in the 1990s, has already had his bid accepted by the receivers, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Meanwhile, a bid for the Tyne and Merseyside operations has also been made, along with a bid for the Merseyside headquarters of Cammell Laird.

Brett Martin, former deputy chief executive of Cammell Laird Holdings, and former group operations director John Syvret are planning to put their bid on the table within the next two weeks.

But PwC has also received an offer from the Birkenhead management team - led by managing director Dave Gillam and financial commercial director Steve Brookfield - for just the Merseyside operations.

It is believed this bid is backed by Lloyds TSB, the DTI, the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, and yard staff.

The company's Tyneside operations were due to be mothballed yesterday, with the loss of a further 166 jobs, after the completion of refurbishment work on the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel, Fort George.

The Birkenhead operations will be halted at the end of the weekend.

Once all the bids are received, the process of determining the successful ones could take several weeks, a spokesman for PwC said.

The receivers will continue to review labour requirements at the yards, and more redundancies may be announced next week.