Britain’s biggest takeover battle looms.

Elders IXL, an Australian company, said it intended to form a consortium to bid for one of Britain’s top companies, Allied-Lyons. The proposed bid by Elders, best known as the company that brews Fosters lager, would put a price tag of at least $2.4 billion on Allied-Lyons, a price that Allied promptly rejected as “ludicrously inadequate.” The largest British takeover to date is the 1984 purchase of Eagle Star Insurance by tobacco company BAT for about $1.37 billion.