What is going on at Ardagh, owners of glassmaker Irish Glass Bottle? The group's results for the year to the end of June should have been out before now, but it seems that it will be another week before the figures are published.
For the past few years, Ardagh has published its figures in late September or early October, but now it seems it will be midNovember before shareholders get to know how the company is doing. Why the delay? "The results just aren't ready," said a company spokesman.
It must be emphasised that Ardagh is still well within the mandatory reporting period within which results must be published. But the delay this year, together with speculation over a possible sale of the 21.5 per cent of Ardagh held by BTR's Rockware subsidiary, has irked some smaller Ardagh shareholders who believe that anybody buying or selling the company's shares at the moment is doing so in a vacuum.
At last year's a.g.m., chairman Peter Murray said Ardagh would try to buy a business in the 1998/97 financial year or else pay a special dividend. The financial year has now come and gone and nothing has been acquired, so will the results include a special payout?
If there is to be a special dividend, Ardagh is in a position to be generous, with its cash pile expected to have reached £14 million by the end of June. A dividend of 3p has been mentioned in the markets, but that would only cost Ardagh £1 million, leaving £13 million lying in the balance sheet accumulating interest.
Maverick shareholder Neil Duggan called for a 5p special dividend at last year's annual meeting. Given Ardagh's financial strength and apparent inability to find an acquisition after years of trying, that does not seem an unreasonable demand. Even 5p a share would only cost £1.7 million!
A dividend will be especially welcome for Paul Coulson's Yeoman International Group, which bought almost 8 per cent of Ardagh last June when the shares were trading near 40p. With Ardagh currently on 120p, Yeoman is nursing a sizeable paper loss which might be ameliorated by a payout.
