So farewell Fitzwilton! Shareholders have finally been taken out of their misery, and with the stock market listing now gone, the group now becomes the personal investment vehicle of Tony O'Reilly, Peter Goulandris and Lew Glucksman.

Companies being brought private is never terribly good news for stock markets, but suffice to say that the departure of Fitzwilton is not going to cause too many people to shed tears. Its performance for years was woeful, with no sign that the management of the company had any clear strategy about where the company was going. Going in and out of businesses with great regularity did not indicate a management with a clear focus.

And while this column said on more than one occasion that the 50p offer price from the O'Reilly-Goulandris group was paltry, it was just as well that the offer came when it did last June. It's hard to see Mr O'Reilly and Mr Goulandris offering 50p a share now given what's happened in the past couple of months to Fitzwilton's main asset - its 16.5 per cent stake in Waterford Wedgwood.

That stake was valued at £116 million at the time of offer, but Fitzwilton's stake in Waterford Wedgwood is now worth no more than £70 million after the WW shares were decimated by Wedgwood's exposure to Japan. That puts an altogether different complexion on the deal and should provide some satisfaction for Fitzwilton shareholders, even Scottish Provident's John Lawrie who launched a broadside against the "knockdown" price offered by O'Reilly and Goulandris.