Waterford Wedgwood completes rights issue

Waterford Wedgwood has completed the €38.5 million rights issue it launched before Christmas as part of a major refinancing programme.

The firm said yesterday 88.07 per cent of the new shares on offer had been taken up, with the remainder placed by Davy Stockbrokers at 21 cents per share.

The rights issue, which was fully underwritten by Davy, was priced at 18 cents per unit and was made on a three-for-11 basis.

All of the company's main shareholders took up their entitlement, with the O'Reilly and Goulandris families, who between them own a quarter of Waterford Wedgwood, spending some €10 million in the process.

The offering was also taken up in full by Waterford's remaining directors, a number of whom raised their holdings in the company as the issue neared its Christmas Eve closing date.

The issue was, however, partly shunned by Waterford's 25,000 smaller, individual investors, of whom just 9,000 chose to take up their entitlement.

The reluctance of smaller shareholders to become involved accounted for a portion of the 11.93 per cent "rump" left over after the issue had closed.

The rump also included the entitlements of overseas investors, who were excluded from the issue from the start. This block was placed with unnamed institutions at 21 cents per unit, thus bringing the total raised to €39.2 million before expenses.

The fully-paid units traded positively in Dublin yesterday, climbing two cents to 23 cents.