SPARE a thought for Mackie International. The Belfast engineering group has received a rather muted response to its quest for equity. It was offering a one for four issue at 275p sterling a share, to raise £6.68 million last month.
However, only 36.85 per cent was taken up by shareholders. Directors represented almost 15 per cent of the equity and had given irrevocable commitments to take up their rights.
The reason for the poor response from shareholders - the remainder of the issue has been left with the underwriters - is not surprising. The share price had dropped below the issue price last week.
Mr Peter Addison, director of English Trust, the company's financial advisers, said the response was not as bad as it appeared because Mackie had to contend with a number of factors outside its control. These included the uncertain political situation and the collapse of the stock markets last week.
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