Waterford Wedgwood’s Group Financial Officer, Anthony Jones, said this week that management was in the process of building a new Waterford Wedgwood with the support of shareholders and lenders.
Mr Jones also said a new three-year cost reduction programme would ‘go further than any plan before it’.
Referring to the company’s announcement on 16 September that it proposed to raise €153.7 million, before expenses, via an equity issue, Mr Jones said the Open Offer was underpinned by irrevocable undertakings from Sir Anthony O’Reilly, Chairman, and Peter John Goulandris, Deputy Chairman, to subscribe for €60 million, their full pro rata share of the Open Offer.
There were proposals to streamline all areas of the business and the new plan would remove complexity from the business targeting substantial annualised cost savings as well as a significant reduction in monies tied up in working capital”, he added.
The Company will seek approval for the 2008 Equity Issue at an EGM which has been convened for 11am on 13 October and at a Preference Shareholders Class Meeting convened for the same date and place as soon as the EGM has been concluded or adjourned. These meetings will also be held at Citywest Hotel, Dublin.
Waterford Wedgwood held an Extraordinary General Meeting in the Citywest Hotel on Monday morning in compliance with Section 40 of the Companies (Amendment) Act 1983 of Ireland (“Section 40”).
The requirements of Section 40 are that a meeting should be convened for the purposes of considering whether any, and if so what, measures should be taken to deal with the situation when the net assets of the company were half, or less than half, of the company’s called up share capital.
