One More Thing:It was Groundhog Day this week for investors in Waterford Wedgwood with the company unveiling plans to raise up to €200 million in new preference shares to help fund redundancies and increase the marketing spend on its ailing products.
Sound familiar? It certainly should. The Sir Anthony O'Reilly-controlled luxury goods group raised €60 million last July from shareholders to help keep the show on the road until the company turned the corner financially. In late 2005, they were asked to cough up about €100 million.
The latest fundraising means that Waterford Wedgwood will have gone to the well five times since 2003, raising about €400 million in the process. There was also a €165 million bond issue and the sale of All-Clad in the United States for $250 million.
O'Reilly and his brother-in-law Peter Goulandris have stumped up €190 million between them during the various funding rounds. This latest move will cost them at least €51 million.
In spite of the huge cash injections, Waterford Wedgwood's debt rose in the 12 months to the end of last December from €338 million to €382 million.
Results for the nine months to the end of 2006 show it posted losses of €47 million, while sales in the January to March quarter were quiet. While there are renewed signs of life at the crystal division, sales were down at its ceramics arm between April and December as it recorded a loss of €14 million.
It's a bleak picture given the raft of new product launches in recent times and the mass redundancies that have been achieved during the period.
We should have known some bad news was coming down the track. In late January, company broker Davy downgraded its forecasts for Waterford Wedgwood by 10 per cent. This was just weeks after the luxury goods group said it had its "best Christmas in years".
O'Reilly and Goulandris own 51 per cent of Waterford Wedgwood's equity. With no light at the end of the tunnel, the day surely can't be far off when the pair take the company private.
