One can only imagine Mr Harry Sheridan's feelings when he was told by share registrar Capita that, ahem, it had lost 8.2 million shares that had been taken up in CRH's groundbreaking rights issue.

Mr Sheridan - who, more than most finance directors, spends a large chunk of his time talking to his institutional investors - knew that the situation had to be sorted out pronto if CRH's high standing in the market was not to be affected by the hames that Capita made of counting the take-up to the €1.1 billion (£866 million) rights issue.

Capita was told quite bluntly that it was responsible for the under-counting of the rights issue and it was to sort it out. Underwriters Davy and Warburg made it clear that it wasn't its problem - it simply took Capita's numbers and placed the rump of the rights issue it was told existed.

Capita initially suggested that the problem did not automatically mean that it would have to go into the market and buy the 8.2 million shares required to complete the placing of the rump. But the reality was that Capita had absolutely no choice but to bite the bullet, buy the shares at the market rate, and take the loss when these were sold at the €16.50 placing price for the rights issue rump.

And the market - secure in the knowledge that it had a forced buyer to deal with - squeezed Capita dry, with brokers HSBC having to pay €18.25 for the 8.2 million shares it then had to sell on at €16.50. That's a hit of almost €14.4 million for Capita or, to be precise, the unfortunate insurers who held Capita's professional indemnity insurance.

For Capita - which also acts as registrar for Smurfit and Irish Life - the CRH rights issue fiasco has been a huge embarrassment. Whether it manages to hang on to its CRH business after the past week's events remains to be seen but there can be little doubt that its main rival in the Irish market, Computershare, will use its rival's difficulties to boost its position.