POSTMAN Pat has let down shareholders of Inchcape who applied for the

group's one-for-three rights issue but plans are afoot to remedy the

situation.

Almost 1000 provisional allotment letters and first instalment cheques

for 1,526,000 new shares postmarked on or before January 3 were not

delivered to Barclays Registrars until January 9, two days after the

deadline of 3pm on January 7. Unfortunate shareholders caught by the

Post Office delay lost out. But the group is not going to let it lie.

Directors are considering how they could effectively still participate

in the share issue. They expect to be able to offer new shares to them

at the same price as the 310p rights level. More details of the plan

will be given within a few days.