Akzo Nobel, the Dutch chemicals group, maintained its silence on Tuesday about its £7.2bn ($14.8bn) takeover bid for UK-based ICI in spite of a looming deadline of August 9 to ‘put up or shut up’ imposed by the UK Takeover Panel.

The Dutch company’s offer for ICI was rejected immediately by the company’s management for being too low and the market has been awaiting Akzo Nobel’s next move.