COMPANIES Sir Anthony O’Reilly struck a poignant note for someone usually so ebullient. His “only consolation” from Waterford Wedgwood going into receivership, he said, was the knowledge that he and the board had done “everything that could have been done” to save the tableware company.
Sir Anthony, chairman of the luxury crockery maker and Ireland’s best-known businessman, is often criticised in the Irish media over his business affairs. But few doubt his commitment to the historic company, which he rescued in 1990 in a debt-financed buy-out supported by Morgan Stanley.
