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After announcing a 10 percent headcount reduction in early May, which saw around 35 of the firm's 340 Irish workers lose their jobs, Marconi has said that as many as 105 more jobs were lost in Ireland in the last three months. According to Joe Kelly, Marconi's vice president of worldwide public relations, the business' Irish workforce is down from 340 in May to between 150 and 200 workers currently, split between facilities in Dun Laoghaire and Swords.
In the midst of these Irish job losses, and the 13,000 other workers the company has made redundant in the last few months, the UK-based business is reportedly on the verge of entering into voluntary liquidation as it plans to restructure its finances.
It is expected that Marconi's creditors, who are owed around STG4 billion, will be given equity in exchange for cash owed to them. This debt-for-equity swap will see 31 banks, who are owed STG2.3 billion, and bondholders, who are owed STG1.7 billion, take hold of the bulk of Marconi's shares. Existing shareholders are unlikely to salvage anything from the deal, reports say.
Marconi's existing business will be placed into liquidation as Britain does not have a similar system to America's chapter 11 bankruptcy protection procedure, used by WorldCom and NTL, which allows firms to carry out restructurings while remaining in operation. According to reports, the restructured company is likely to retain the Marconi name.
Marconi's troubles are generally attributed to a spate of acquisitions and investments in the late 1990s made by the firm, as well as by the momentous slowdown in demand for telecommunications equipment, its core business. Kelly was unable to say what impact the restructuring would have on Marconi's remaining Irish workforce.
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