Sunday Business Post to exit examinership tomorrow

Brindisi Ltd investment of €750,000 in newspaper approved by Commercial Court

The Sunday Business Post will officially exit examinership today after the High Court approved a survival plan for the newspaper.

Nine redundancies have taken place, reducing the workforce to 65. Staff have agreed to a 6 per cent wage cut and will become 6 per cent shareholders as part of the plan.

A €750,000 investment by Brindisi Limited, Sir John Rogersons Quay, Dublin, will be part equity investment plus a €350,000 one-year interest-free loan.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly approved the scheme for Post Publications Ltd after considering a confidential document prepared by examiner Michael McAteer.

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Rossa Fanning, for the examiner, said information in the document included projected figures for sales and advertising and could give the court a degree of comfort that the newspaper has a reasonable prospect of survival.

Under the plan, super-preferential creditors, including the Revenue, will be paid the agreed debt in full. Unsecured creditors – the largest being Irish Life, which is owed some €2 million – will get 2.5 per cent of the agreed debt.

There will be €53,000 for unsecured creditors. Distributors and freelance contributors, including Vincent Browne, who is owed €25,000, will get 15 per cent of what they are owed.

The judge said he hoped the examiner’s optimistic opinion for the paper’s future would be borne out.

Mary Carolan

Mary Carolan

Mary Carolan is the Legal Affairs Correspondent of the Irish Times