O’Reilly and in-laws own 25% of crystal firm

Jim Morahan

A quarter of the Waterford Wedgwood shares are owned by the families of Dr O'Reilly and his brother-in-law Peter Goulandris.

At close of business yesterday, Waterford shares had soared 36% a rise of 1c to 0.05 giving the company a value of E132m. On that basis, the O'Reilly and Goulandris families' stake is worth about E34m.

How much the two families paid for the Waterford shares is not known, but their value represents a tiny fraction of their worth a decade ago.

The slump in shares of a few years back hit the O'Reilly share portfolio particularly hard.

For example, the 2002 downturn had analysts believing Dr O'Reilly's gross assets were down 500m that year alone. In 2003, tumbling stock markets wiped 113m off the value of Irish shares owned by Dr O'Reilly.

His 27% stake in Independent News & Media fell 21% to E216m and the value of his 13% holding in Waterford Wedgwood slumped by 61% to E33.7m.

At that stage Chryss Goulandris had assets worth more than E618m.

Waterford chairman Dr O'Reilly and deputy chairman Mr Goulandris controlled about 27% of the company when it acquired British rival Royal Doulton last year.

About 75% of Waterford Wedgwood shareholders took up new shares in a E166m rights issue to fund the Doulton acquisition.

Davy Stockbrokers found subscribers for the remaining 25%, at a reported 0.21 each.

This meant Birchfield Holdings, the vehicle owned by Dr O'Reilly and Mr Goulandris, did not have to subscribe for any of the new shares.

Dr O'Reilly and Mr Goulandris continue to hold 24.6% of the company between them.