WITH just six share-holders - including directors - present, an extraordinary general meeting of the troubled Belfast engineering group Mackie International has given the go-ahead for a Pounds 5.2 million rights issue aimed at saving the company.

A spokesman for Mackie said that the e.g.m. at the offices of London lawyers Slaughter & May had "six people in the room".meeting as proxies had to be lodged with the company 48 hours ahead of the meeting. Sufficient proxies to approve the rights issue were held by the Mackie board.

Shareholders really had no option but to approve the rights issue, which has been partly underwritten by former chairman, Mr Pat Dougan and new chief executive, Mr Sul Sahota.

If the rights issue had not been approved, Mackie would not have had access to new Pounds 4.5 million banking facilities. The group's existing bank facilities would have been insufficient to meet creditors and the company would have faced collapse.

Last month, Mackie restated its accounts for 1996 to a loss of Pounds 7.2 million.

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