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Irish media company enters KPMG receivership

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7th Mar 2013
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An 171-year-old Irish media company that controls some of the country’s national and regional newspapers and radio stations has gone through a complicated corporate restructuring engineered by KPMG.

Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH), which owns national newspaper the Irish Examiner sold the company’s main assets to a new company, Landmark Media investments as part of a complex financial restructuring plan.

While the main assets of TCH will continue to trade under the new arrangement, the Sunday Business Post has received permission from the High Court in Ireland to appoint Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton Ireland as examiner (like an administrator) so it can keep trading. 

If wound up, it would result in €6.5m deficiency to creditors. It currently employs 76 people and 20 to 25 redundancies will be sought, the court heard. 

In a statement on its website, TCH said: “The examiner, if appointed, will formulate a scheme of arrangement to insure the future viability of the newspaper.”

However the group's print arm, Thomas Crosbie Print, will go into liquidation with the loss of 12 jobs.

KPMG partner Kieran Wallace was appointed as receiver to TCH by Irish bank AIB.

“It was the nature of the receivership and consequent acquisition that led us down that route with just a statement from Landmark Media Investments,” a KPMG spokesperson said.

The assets of TCH will be bought from the receiver by Landmark Media Investments, owned by former TCH chief Tom Crosbie and his father Ted.

According to ABC figures, Irish newspaper sales have been falling in recent years, with the Sunday Business Post selling 11.5% fewer papers in the final half of 2012 compared to the year before.

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