Staples, the US office supplies company, raised its indicative offer for Dutch rival Corporate Express by 10 per cent to €8.00 a share on Tuesday and said it was prepared to launch a hostile bid.

Corporate Express, which repeatedly rejected Staples’ original offer of €7.25 a share, said it would “carefully consider” the new proposal once the bid was made official, which is likely to be early next week. The new bid gives the Dutch company an equity value of about €1.5bn ($1.9bn).