Their company might be planning to acquire a business twice as big as itself, but Qualceram shareholders failed to turn up in their droves at the group's annual general meeting yesterday. Ordinary shareholders were heavily outnumbered by directors, accountants, PR people and other advisers.
If they had turned up, they would have gathered very little new information about the proposed £40 million (€50.79 million) acquisition of the Shires bathroom products business in Britain, a deal that would treble Qualceram's turnover to more than €100 million.
After the meeting, Qualceram chief executive Mr John O'Loughlin rejected suggestions that Qualceram might be overreaching itself with an acquisition of this scale.
"It will be a mixture of debt and equity," he said, although he declined to give the exact split between the two.
"We are comfortable with the gearing and cover that will exist in the enlarged group, and the banks are happy," said Mr O'Loughlin, who added that the acquisitions would be earnings-enhancing.
He said that Qualceram did not anticipate issuing equity to part-fund the deal. "We have been encouraged by the response from the market," he said. "This puts us into a different threshold which allows other funds to look at Qualceram."
