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Waterford Wedgwood plc is the holding entity for a group of companies headquartered in Ireland, specialised in the manufacture of high quality china, porcelain and glass. The group is dominated by Tony O'Reilly and his immediate family, and the family of Mr. O'Reilly's second wife, Chryss, the two families together having invested hundreds of millions of euro in it. Its financial record has been mixed, and significant cost-cutting has been ongoing for many years. On January 5, 2009, parts of the Group, including the main Irish and UK operations, were placed in receivership[1].
[edit] HistoryIncorporated: 1947 as Waterford Crystal Limited The present company was founded in 1947. The firm traces its heritage to the 1780s[2]. [edit] SubsidiariesThe group's constituent companies include:
and the group also licences its brands to other companies. [edit] FinancialsRevenues are significant, Waterford being more than twice the scale of its nearest competitor in analysts' reviews, but the company has been in losses for five consecutive years. [edit] Results for 2007-2008Sales for the year to April 5 2008 were 671.8 million euros, down 9.4% year-on-year. Losses were 231.1 million euros, up from 71.3 million euros in the previous year. On 2 April 2008, the CEO, Peter Cameron (previously COO, and prior to that CEO of acquisition All-Clad), resigned, and was replaced by David Sculley. Operational costs have been reduced, with around 4,000 jobs removed or in the process of being removed between early 2005 and late 2008. The results during 2008 were poorer than expected, and out of line with comments O'Reilly made in a 2007 magazine interview, predicting profitability by 2008. [edit]In October 2008, the shares fell to .001 euro cent [3]. [edit] Financing[edit] 2007A convertible preference share issue was made in April 2007, totalling 200 million euros. Subscribers included Lazard Alternative Investments (50 million euros), Tony O'Reilly, Peter Goulandris and others. As with other share issues of recent years, the issue was on a par basis, and did not proportionally dilute existing capital. [edit] 2008It was announced 1 August 2008 that a further 120 million euros will be raised in share sales in 2008, taking the total raised since 2005 to over 400 million euros. In September 2008, details of the new share issue were further announced, and this issue will proportionally dilute capital, reducing the entire value of the shares extant prior to the new issue to under 5% of the total capital after the issue - this will be achieved by issuing 5,000 additional shares for each share subscribed. Sir Anthony O'Reilly and Peter Goulandris announced that they would take up their full allotments, investing a further 60 million euros, and Lazard Brothers would increase their shareholding. Other investors did not advance sufficient funds to complete the issue. [edit] 2009Following the failure of the 2008 share issue and the subsequent defaulting of bank covenants by the company in December 2008, Tony O'Reilly, Jr stated in January 2009 that the company was in advanced negotiations with a US private equity company concerning a rescue package, which would result in the bulk of the company's production moving away from the UK and Ireland to Indonesia (where the company already has some production facilities). On January 5, 2009, David Sculley, chief executive officer of Waterford Wedgwood PLC, announced that Waterford Wedgwood had been put into receivership after the heavily-indebted firm had failed to find a buyer.[1] Union members organised and occupied the Dublin offices lobby and the Kilbarry Plant protesting the withdrawal of credit lines by The Bank of America and threatened 480 redundancies. Their aim, according to blogger, Fiona Harrington "to either have the company nationalised, or to maintain it as a going concern until a buyer can be found."[4] On February 27, 2009, Waterford Wedgwood's receiver, Deloitte, announced that the New York-based private equity firm KPS Capital Partners had purchased "certain Irish and UK assets of Waterford Wedgwood and the assets of several of its Irish and UK subsidiaries" in a transaction expected to completed in March.[5] 176 out of the threatened 480 jobs were saved, although the deal did not include the Waterford site.[6] [edit] DirectorsFollowing the resignations on 5 January 2009 of the Chairman, Senior Independent Director, Lady O'Reilly and a former CEO, and of further directors on the 8th and 9th, and the departure of John Foley, the Board of Directors comprises the below. All resigning directors have also resigned from subsidiary boards.
Up to 5 January 2009, the Board of Directors comprised the below, many having served for a decade or more:
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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