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Article: COOKSON (CKSN).
- Article from:
- Investors Chronicle
- Article date:
- March 7, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 FT Business. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Last summer, Cookson launched a rights issue in truly lousy stock market conditions. The company was being pummelled by the slump in the electronics and steel industries, and it risked losing investors confidence for good. Largely because the issue price was so deeply discounted, the take-up was over 90 per cent and GBP277m was raised. This was thrown at Cooksons daunting debt pile, which has now fallen from GBP750m to a much healthier GBP428m. Include proceeds from the GBP47m sale of the precision products division in January, and the pro forma figure drops to GBP383m.
In short, Cookson isnt going bust. But thats not to say that trading is great. Operating ...