PANDAS ARE slow, lazy creatures, happy to spend their days munching bamboo.

Meath-based Panda Waste has displayed no such signs of sluggishness in recent years as it sought out territories that it could devour.

On Wednesday, the company, which is controlled by Eamon Waters, announced that it would start collecting waste in the Dublin City area in the coming weeks.

The move follows last month's failed attempt by Dublin City Council to secure a High Court injunction stopping Panda operating in the local authority's administrative area.

Panda will become the only private operator working in all four Dublin local authority areas.

Panda's aggressive expansion hasn't gone unnoticed, with larger rival Greenstar, which is owned by energy and utilities group NTR, in advanced negotiations to buy the business.

Panda has said it would be "premature" to presume that it will be sold to Greenstar and that all options were being explored by the company.

Waters is understood to be holding out for €65 million for the entire company. This seems a hefty figure given that Panda's 2006 accounts show it made a pretax of €3.4 million, although this figure should have risen last year.

As with any large takeover, the devil is in the detail. It is believed that the two groups are negotiating hard over which side will shoulder Panda's debt in the event of a sale of the whole business.

Sources have suggested to us that Panda's debts could be as high as €35 million.

Greenstar is a corporate takeover veteran, having acquired 13 businesses over the past eight years, and will drive a hard deal.

Waters might have to accept a lower figure, although he will still scoop a tidy sum. As they used to say in the north of England - where there's muck, there's brass.