C&C would still see bright red even if flotation goes through

IT hasn't been a good week exactly, what with Ansbacher, the swingeing CAP reform proposals and the prospect of Elan heading for the breakers' yard.

To add insult to injury, C&C rightly pulled its flotation. The word in the market is that the public certainly had no appetite for the launch with applications for stock seriously thin on the ground.

One well-placed broker said the stock would have had to be priced as low as 2 to get it away in the current climate of uncertainty and sleaze.