Dunfermline pays €30.5m for 'Meath Chronicle'

The owners of the Meath Chronicle yesterday realised €30.5 million through the sale of the title and its printing press to Dunfermline Press, a Scottish newspaper group.

The deal is one of the biggest since the recent round of consolidation in the local media market commenced. Six members of the Davis family, which has owned the newspaper since 1917, will share the proceeds. The acquisition follows the breakdown of talks this summer between the Navan-based company and Thomas Crosbie Holdings, owner of the Examiner.

It is believed that Dunfermline, which was not involved in the process at that stage, entered the frame about four months ago. The firm publishes five weekly local newspapers in Scotland, two of them freesheets, with combined weekly circulation of 130,588.

Mr Cathal Friel of Merrion Capital, which brokered the deal, said he believed Dunfermline would seek to expand its presence in the Irish market. Mr Friel, who described the deal as the largest single transaction this year in the Irish media market, believed Dunfermline wanted to concentrate on the newspaper industry and had no interest in the radio market.

If the firm acquired other titles in Leinster, it would use the Chronicle's new press to print them. The company's Dublin-born chief executive, Ms Deirdre Romanes, was not available yesterday.

The Chronicle's managing director, Mr Jack Davis, was also not available yesterday. He will step down in the new year along with his wife, Margot, who is editor of the firm's other title, Modern Woman. Mr Jack Davis owns some 16.25 per cent of the firm, valuing his stake at €5.12 million. His son Paul, who will remain as production director, owns a 4.31 per cent valued at about €1.35 million. The biggest beneficiary of the sale is Mr Joseph Davis, an Office of Public Works architect and cousin of Mr Jack Davis. His 31.25 per cent stake is worth about €9.84 million. The paper's editor, Mr Ken Davis, a nephew of Mr Jack Davis, will also remain with the business. His 15.63 per cent stake is worth about €4.77 million. Another nephew, Mr Denis Davis, owns a similar stake. An Australia-based niece, Ms Joan Loftus, owns a 16.67 per cent stake worth €5.08 million.

The most recent Companies Office filings suggest a record of steady growth in the Meath Chronicle business. Net profits last year rose to €915,030 from €627,952 on revenues believed to have been about €7 million. The profit this year is believed to be near €2 million, suggesting a sale valuation on the firm about 15 times sales. This reflects valuations seen in other recent newspaper transactions, with long-established titles such as the Limerick Leader and Longford Leader changing hands this year in multi-million deals.

The Chronicle's recent profit growth reflects a full-year contribution from a German-made KBA printing press, installed during 2001 at a dedicated site outside Navan, for up to €10 million. Under a deal reached during 2001, the Meath firm prints some 600,000 copies of Trinity Mirror titles the Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People every week. The arrangement is highly profitable for the Chronicle, whose own weekly newspaper has a cirulation of 17,000. In existence since 1897, the newspaper has been under pressure from another local title, the Weekender, which has moved into a market controlled for decades by the Chronicle.

Dunfermline's entry into the market follows that of Scottish Radio Holdings which has built up a stable of five regional titles and Today FM.