LOSSES INCURRED by Waterford Wedgwood’s main shareholders, Sir Anthony O’Reilly and his brother-in-law Peter Goulandris, through their investments in the luxury goods company could rise significantly under deals agreed with the firm’s banks.
Sir Anthony, the company’s chairman, and Mr Goulandris, deputy chairman at the firm, have invested about €400 million in the firm in recent years. The appointment of a receiver and the suspension of the company’s shares means their investments have been wiped out.
Redmond O’Donoghue, who resigned as a director of the firm yesterday evening, said that €60 million, which the two men had invested as recently as a few weeks ago, was now “gone”.
Sir Anthony and Mr Goulandris have also personally guaranteed a €40 million loan to the company from Anglo Irish Bank.
They had also placed €25 million on deposit with some of the company’s lenders as security for part of the firm’s borrowings.
Sir Anthony and Mr Goulandris had agreed with Bank of Nova Scotia in Canada that the bank would repay €30 million owed by Waterford Wedgwood to Bank of America, if it could not pay the debt. The two businessmen would, in turn, repay Bank of Nova Scotia.
The agreement was reached after Bank of America sought additional security in late 2006 and early 2007 for its loans to the company. In June 2007, Waterford Wedgwood said Bank of Nova Scotia had a security interest in 1.43 billion shares in the firm.
Later that week, Independent News Media (INM), in which Sir Anthony is the largest shareholder, withdrew as “incorrect” a stock market notification which suggested Bank of Nova Scotia had a security interest in three million of his INM shares.
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