€50m boost for Waterford Wedgwood

WATERFORD Wedgwood is to get a €50 million investment from a leading US investor, said chairman Tony O’Reilly.

Preference shares will be issued to the investment company, understood to be Lazard, the listed US investment bank, according to market sources.

The company hopes to have raised €200m by the year end, including a further €17m from the chairman and his brother-in-law Peter John Goulandris, plus €33m to be taken up by other investors.

Shareholders were told at yesterday’s annual general meeting in Dublin that much of the new tranche of funding would be used to deliver a further spate of rationalisation across the group. Jobs will be lost across the group, including Ireland, but the company refused to be specific about where the axe would fall.

WW, which owns two of the leading 200 table top brands in the world, has spent €90m since May 2005 shedding 2,200 jobs.

It still employs about 8,000, including 1,400 in Ireland.

Waterford Wedgwood had its best September sales since 2003 and, for the month of October present indications are that total group sales will show healthy growth over last year, shareholders were told at the well-attended meeting in the Mansion House.

“Prospects for the all-important Christmas period are encouraging: the group’s total order book at October 1 is up 11% over last year,” said the chairman.

Shares in the glass and crystal group were down slightly having gained 0.5 cent to 3.5 cent in early trading.

Shareholders expressed concern that the share price had performed very badly. The chairman said he agreed with one shareholder who said a price of 3 cent was “ridiculous” given the two core brands were worth between €2bn and €4bn.

Despite the continuing poor performance by the group, shareholders spent over 30 minutes arguing over a motion to hold annual general meetings outside Ireland. When shareholders at the meeting voted against the AGM being held outside the country at some future date, many got extremely annoyed when the chairman said the proxy votes carried the day.

One shareholder reminded the chairman she worked for the group long before he ever got involved. The company’s AGM belonged in Ireland where the company has its roots, she said.