Waterford has largest piece of Rosenthal

Waterford Wedgwood, the crystal and fine bone china group, has achieved a 76

Waterford Wedgwood, the crystal and fine bone china group, has achieved a 76.1 per cent holding in Rosenthal, the publicly quoted German porcelain products manufacturer. This follows the bid for the outstanding shares it did not previously own.It had gained a controlling 51.58 per cent last December and had predicted it would end up with around 75 per cent.Waterford Wedgwood never contemplated gaining a 100 per cent holding as the equity is in the form of bearer bonds and around 10 per cent are reckoned to be untraceable.Also Waterford Wedgwood said it wanted the Rosenthal employees who owns around 6 per cent of the company to hold onto their shares. The offer of DM200 per share now closes on Thursday and it will not be extended. The shares will continue to be quoted on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Prior to the offer, Waterford Wedgwood had a 31.4 per cent stake in the German company.Waterford Wedgwood now has the choice of consolidating Rosenthal's results into its group results to December 31st 1997, or postponing the consolidation until the following year.Group finance director, Mr Richard Barnes, told The Irish Times that no decision had been made on the treatment of Rosenthal's results. However, the treatment will be made "crystal clear" when the results are announced next month. Rosenthal which has been incurring large losses is understood to have been close to break even, at the operating level, at the end of 1997, following a major rationalisation programme which is ongoing.