Joe.ie company forecasts return to profit after examinership exit

The operator of social news website Joe.ie is forecasting a return to profit this year and in 2023, according to directors’ notes in the latest set of accounts for Maximum Media Network Ltd. The company emerged from a five-month High Court examinership in October, 2020.

The accounts, the first to be signed off at the company since January, 2020, show that Maximum Media Network recorded a pretax loss of €10 million in 2019 and a €1 million pretax loss in 2018.

The 2019 loss chiefly arose from ‘impairment of financial assets’, with the company writing off €7.8 million owed by subsidiary JOE Media Ltd.

Revenues at the ‘distributed media company’ in 2019 increased by 9 per cent from €5.96 million to €6.5 million.

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The directors said “the impact of the pandemic ultimately led to the company entering into examinership”.

They added that the company was particularly susceptible to the impact of the economic downturn brought about by Covid-19 pandemic measures due to its business model, which relied on high sales volumes, and the level of its external debt.

Arising from the examinership process, the company’s founder Niall McGarry resigned from its board on October 9th, 2020.

[ Niall McGarry steps away from Maximum Media business in Ireland ]

Former Ireland rugby international Jerry Flannery also resigned as a director on that date.

On the same day, a proposal to recapitalise the company was approved and the business exited examinership. The survival scheme involved a €10.5 million investment.

Greencastle Acquisition Ltd, whose sole shareholder is Linton Capital LLP, made the combined investment in Maximum Media Network, which is behind both Joe.ie and its UK subsidiary. Directors Paul O’Donohoe and David Graeme Sefton signed off on the new accounts on August 29th. In notes, they said that “since exiting examinership, the company has continued to be loss-making as a result of the pandemic”.

They noted that “the company relies on fellow group companies to meet its liabilities as they fall due.”

They said they have prepared cash flow projections for 2022 and 2023 “which indicate that the company is forecasting to return to profitability during this period”, adding that they are satisfied that the company has sufficient support from its group companies to meet all obligations as they fall due “for the foreseeable future”.

Numbers employed in 2019 increased from 84 to 93 as staff costs totalled €4.6 million. Pay to directors declined from €347,758 to €263,783.