Pratt waves goodbye to 5m windfall as drinks firm pulls plug on flotation

BUSINESSMAN Maurice Pratt has missed out on a 5 million euro windfall after the drinks group which he heads pulled the plug on a stock market flotation yesterday.

Cantrell and Cochrane’s 2,000 workers have also lost out because of the postponement as they were to get 20m euro under the initial public offering.

The company was to begin trading its shares next week, but management decided to postpone the flotation because of falling stock markets.

C&C had indicated a price of between 2.60 euro and 3.60 euro per share. The 10% stake in the company held by management would have been worth 140m.

Chief executive Mr Pratt, a former Tesco boss, stood to make as much as 5m euro from the flotation.

Other senior management to miss out include finance director Brendan Dwan, whose shares would have been worth 5.5m euro, and senior executive Brendan McGuinness, who stood to make 7m euro.

The postponement of the stock market flotation means that workers will miss out on the free shares for the moment.

They were to have received 738 worth of shares for every year of service on top of a basic entitlement of 670.

This would have been worth up to 15,000 for a worker with 20 years service.

C&C chairman Tony O’Brien said the company still intended to go public as a soon as possible.

However, Mr O’Brien said he was concerned about what would happen to the company’s share price after the listing, given the current uncertainty and volatility in the markets.

“The board had to feel comfortable about what would happen to the shares,” said Mr O’Brien.

“It was a risk we were not prepared to take. It’s important that the market is stable. Everything looked wonderful when we took the decision to go public. We looked to be the right stock in the right place.

“We couldn’t have foreseen the impact of these accounting problems like WorldCom. They don’t impact on our business, but the markets have been in turmoil.”

However, Mr O’Brien said it was business as usual for C&C, which owns famous brands such as Tayto Crisps, Ballygowan and Bulmers Cider.

“It doesn’t impact on our business, or growth plans,” he said.

The company spent around 500,000 on marketing and advertising the initial flotation.

Anyone who has already applied for shares will receive a refund immediately, the company said.