It might be a minor overstatement - well, actually a major overstatement - to suggest that the market is awaiting James Crean's results at the end of the month with bated breath. Only Crean's long-suffering shareholders care one hoot about the group's results, but they will be hoping for one chink of light at the end of the tunnel.

It's now more than five months since Crean came up with the wonderful idea of splitting the company into two, essentially converting one dreadful company into two dreadful companies.

That decision was taken last October even as it was clear that Irish fund managers were winding down their exposure to small cap stocks ahead of the introduction of the euro. Still, Crean saw some logic in dividing one small company into two even smaller companies!

This week ABN-AMRO suggested that the demerger of the print and packaging operations into a separately listed company was unlikely to do much to improve operational performance. The electrical division in Britain is performing despite a substantial restructuring, and all told the risk remains on the downside, according to ABN-AMRO.

The only consolation is that Crean has an estimated break-up value of €2.00 (£1.58) a share compared to the current price in the market of €1.20 - if somebody does come along with a break-up bid. Maybe that's on the mind of the punters who have pushed Crean up from its €0.87 low to €1.20 over the past month.