ABSTRACT
The Industrial Reorganisation Corporation (IRC) was becoming concerned about Davy Ashmore's (DA) cash position before the meeting in November. It thought that part of the finance for the company's acquisitions had come from advance payments on the Conoco contract and had heard that the cash flow from this project had subsequently turned against DA. DA said that the cash difficulties on the contract were caused by the labour problems of a sub-contractor, but claimed that they were manageable. In this chapter, the authors follow the development of this problem and analyse the IRC's involvement in the steps taken to overcome it. The general case for the IRC providing finance for DA was set out by the company's merchant bank. Paradoxically the very success of the refinancing which the IRC had organised was probably the key feature in its failure to effect the merger it had tried for so long to bring about.
