Alan Sugar will be round at Barclays de Zoute Wedd this morning to hear how the brokers believe they can realise the 46 pence a share valuation they put on Amstrad Plc after the court of shareholders duly – and emphatically – rejected his 30 pence a share buyout offer for the company yesterday: the vote was 8,359 shareholders, speaking for 98.9m shares against, and 5,560 speaking for 108.4m shares in favour, which meant that the proposals fell on both counts, and rendered the subsequent extraordinary general meeting a formality; much heat but little light was generated at the meeting, where there was much personal support for Sugar, who was extremely downbeat on current trading, and said that the videophone had been shelved because he wasn’t satisfied with it, and that the venture into virtual reality with Sega Co Ltd was stymied by lack of working circuitry; he now plans to downsize the company in just the same way as he would have done if his bid had succeeded, in line with current climate and product lines.
