Guinness Peat gets its Coats

Investment holding company Guinness Peat Group posted a first half loss after one of its companies suffered a heavy fine from the European Commission.

In June, Coats Holdings, the world's biggest maker of industrial threads, lost a court fight against €110m in antitrust fines for fixing the price of fasteners such as zippers and rivets.

This resulted in an exceptional charge of £76m in Guinness' results, leading to an overall loss of £36m.

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This compared with a profit of £13m in the same period in 2011.

Coats was also a drag after trading in the first half was lower than expected.

This poor trading, together with adverse movements in exchange rates, resulted in sales at Coats dropping by $43m to around $819m.

Guinness also announced details of a share buyback scheme as it seeks to return surplus cash to shareholders.

"I can confirm the intention to commence this process with the purchase of shares up to a value of £10m as a first stage," said Chairman Rob Campbell.

"A specific announcement with the details of the buyback will be made shortly, subject to the Board confirming that the prevailing market conditions are appropriate."

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