Waterford Wedgwood investors shun offer

The bulk of Waterford Wedgwood's investors apart from Sir Anthony O'Reilly and his brother-in-law Peter Goulandris have shunned the company's latest fundraising.

The lack of appetite from ordinary shareholders means Sir Anthony and Mr Goulandris could end up increasing their stake in the company from 51.3 per cent to as much as 60.5 per cent within the next year.

Waterford confirmed yesterday that its open share offer, designed to raise €58.3 million net of expenses, had attracted a 54.26 per cent take-up rate.

Davy Stockbrokers, which underwrote 48.65 per cent of the offer, has subscribed for the shares not covered in the portion per cent taken up by shareholders.

This means Davy subscribed for 45.74 per cent of the shares on offer.

A spokesman said about 2,700 out of the entities owning shares had subscribed for the offer. Waterford has a total of 25,000 shareholders.

Before the offer, Sir Anthony and Mr Goulandris had committed to subscribing for their full entitlement of stock at a cost of almost €31 million.

Davy has the option to sell any shares it still holds after 12 months to Birchfield Holdings, Sir Anthony and Mr Goulandris's investment vehicle, at the issue price. This could see the two families' stake rise to 60.5 per cent.

Waterford offered three new shares for every existing block of 13 shares held at six cent each.

The company plans to use the funds raised as working capital while Waterford continues to restructure itself.

The price will have held little appeal for most shareholders because the company's shares have consistently traded below that level for the past few months. Last night, they closed at 4.3 cent, down 0.1 cent on the day.

Sir Anthony and Mr Goulandris more than doubled their stake in Waterford from 24.6 to 51.3 per cent last year after a large number of shareholders chose not to participate in a separate rights issue.

Their rising shareholding has left them open to accusations of attempting to buy out the company on the cheap.

Dealing in the new Waterford shares being issued under the open offer began yesterday.

Last month, the company reported an operating loss before exceptionals of €130.8 million for the year to the end of March.

The group hopes to save €90 million per year when its current restructuring, involving the loss of more than 2,000 jobs, is complete.