Ferranti International Plc accompanied its delayed figures for the year to March 30 with news that it intends to shed a fifth of its workforce, 1,600 jobs, over the next two years, with the first round to be announced shortly. It is also planning to sell its majority stake in the Zonephone pocket cordless phone network. The company reports that it turned in losses of UKP161.7m and sales down a quarter to UKP749.9m for the financial year to March – 12 months that chairman Eugene Anderson described as perhaps the most difficult in the one hundred year history of Ferranti in the wake of the Inter national Signal & Control fraud discovered last September. The losses follow an interest charge of UKP49.6m and UKP122.3m set aside in provisions for re organisation and rationalisation. Ferranti also announced that the proposed one-for-four rights is sue at 25 pence is to go ahead following the signing of longer term banking facilities under more favourable terms; the net sum to be raised has been agreed at UKP45.5m, and the proposed issue of loan stock has been abandoned. He commented that the group will not be operating at its peak effectiveness until into 1992, but insisted that the underlying strength of many of Ferranti’s businesses had been demonstrated in difficult times.
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