Tyco: pulling itself together

Last year was an annus horribilis for Tyco, with the conglomerate falling prey to both of the year’s overriding concerns – liquidity and accounting. But a new boss, a new strategy and new financing appear to have quelled investor worries Tyco

Tyco started 2003 on a high note. The Bermuda-based firm launched the largest ever US convertible bond, a $4.5 billion deal, and at the same time announced it had secured $1.5 billion in unsecured loan financing from its banks.

And on the last day of 2002 an internal investigation concluded that while the firm had used aggressive accounting to flatter its financial results, there had not been “significant or systematic fraud affecting the company’s prior financial statements”. The news was seen