Waterford Wedgwood chairman Sir Anthony O'Reilly may have told shareholders in October 2004 that he hoped they would never get the opportunity to take up the company's shares at six cent again.

Unfortunately, the latest rights issue is the third time in under two years that they have been given just that chance.

The strapped luxury goods group raised €100 million in the middle of last year to pay for a restructuring programme that will see more than 2,000 jobs axed in return for cost savings of €90 million a year. Stung by the company's poor performance in recent years, a large number of shareholders chose not to exercise their rights in that issue with the result that Sir Anthony and his in-laws, the Goulandris family, more than doubled their stake in the company from 24.6 per cent to 51.3 per cent.

That was the second fund- raising in six months. In January 2005, Waterford Wedgwood had tapped investors for €100 million to fund the purchase of Royal Doulton. Nearly three-quarters of the group's shareholders had taken up their rights in that offering, at a price of six cent per share.

Previously, in November 2003, the company announced a €38.5 million rights issue,along with a €165 million bond offering, in a major refinancing designed to satisfy the demands of its bankers.

That issue, which saw Sir Anthony and Mr Goulandris take up their rights at an estimated cost of €9.5 million, was at a price of 18 cent per share.