LUXURY GOODS firm Waterford Wedgwood has increased the scale of its latest fundraising initiative to €153.7 million, €33.7 million greater than the amount indicated when the plan was made public last month.

Chairman Sir Anthony O'Reilly and his brother-in-law Peter Goulandris will invest €60 million in a €101.7 million open offer for stock, in line with their pro-rata entitlement as shareholders. The company plans to raise an additional €52 million through a follow-on placing.

Corporate Partners, a private equity fund managed by a division of investment bank Lazard, will invest €15 million in line with their shareholding. The fund will invest an additional €5.3 million should the open offer not be fully subscribed.

The initiative will significantly dilute the interest of other investors who do not take up their entitlement because each new subscription unit will comprise more than 10 times as many stock units as existing stock units.

Waterford will use the proceeds to accelerate and extend the scope of its cost-reduction plan, finance additional marketing and advertising support, reduce debts and strip out complexity from the business.

The firm, owner of brands such as Waterford Crystal and Royal Doulton, plans to complete the elimination of 522 jobs at its plant in Kilbarry, Co Waterford, by the end of the fiscal year.

Details of the accelerated cost-reduction plan will not be released until the prospectus for the equity raising is published tomorrow. Chief finance officer Anthony Jones said last month that there were "no plans at this stage to do anything else" when asked if there was any threat to the remaining 568 jobs at the Kilbarry plant.

The new subscription by Sir Anthony and Mr Goulandris brings to some €400 million their total investment in Waterford, whose latest share placing is its fifth since 2003.

They hold 55 per cent of the firm's ordinary shares and 66.6 per cent of its preference shares, but will reduce their holding of preference shares to 50.7 per cent to facilitate the distribution of preference shares to investors in the fund-raising plan.

As a result, they stand to incur a net loss of €33.7 million through the cancellation for a nominal sum of a 15.8 per cent tranche of the preference shares they hold.

Each new subscription unit, priced at €25 for every 2,121 existing stock units, will comprise 25,000 new stock units and one preference share. New units rank pari passu (with the same rights and privileges as another series of equity) with existing units.