Bank of Bermuda chief executive officer Henry Smith yesterday said he would not disclose the dollar amount of HSBC's initial offer to buy the bank.

The Royal Gazettereported in yesterday's paper that Mr. Smith had said HSBC initially came to the table with an offer $11 lower than the final sales price of $45 per share.

But the bank yesterday said that comments made by Mr. Smith on the $11 were a reference to the $34 price their shares were trading at on the Nasdaq at the time HSBC first approached them, not what had been offered per share as a purchase price.

The bank added that it would not now, nor in future, disclose the details of price negotiations.

However, the bank did say there would be background information, but not specific price disclosures, given to shareholders in the proxy materials to be sent out in the next weeks.

The Royal Gazette's Monday report followed comments made by Mr. Smith during a meeting for Warwick branch members of the PLP, at which he and chief operations officer Phillip Butterfield addressed a group of up to 100 people.

While speaking to the $45 payout per share to shareholders - which is made up of a $40 payment from HSBC, and a $5 special dividend from the Bank of Bermuda - Mr.Smith said: “In terms of the price, there is only one thing you need to know... it is $45 per share,” he said, adding that the $45 price was “$11 higher than where discussions with HSBC began.” Yesterday, the bank said: “It would not be appropriate for either party to disclose the details of the negotiation process, and this information is not in the proxy materials.

“However, background information of the amalgamation will be included in the proxy materials, which is due to be distributed to shareholders the first week of December.”

The deal, which is for a total of $1.3 billion, will see HSBC buy out 100 percent of the bank, including its 17 global operations. The sale is expected to close during the first quarter of 2004, but must still be approved by regulators and shareholders.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette earlier this month, Mr. Smith said there had been price negotiations with HSBC in coming to the final price, but did not divulge further details.

“No one will pay more than they think they have to. We got into pretty heavy price negotiations. We did not start at $45, we worked our way up.

“We did have to negotiate; they were tough, and they do not like paying $45 I can tell you.”