Sunday Business Post to exit examinership tomorrow

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.

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.