Guilfoyle's unsecured creditors to get no payment

More than 80 unsecured creditors of the failed advertising agency, Media Guilfoyle Communications, are unlikely to receive any dividend following its closure.

A statement of affairs of the firm prepared by liquidator, Mr Charles Shiels, shows that Media Guilfoyle Communications owes creditors more than €600,000.

The only assets of the firm's parent, Pagos Limited, are listed as debtors, who owe €135,000. About €100,000 is thought to be realisable. This means that, after fees, there will be no dividend to unsecured creditors, who between them are owed €539,608.

The Revenue Commissioners, which is listed as the sole preferential creditor, is owed some €87,000.

A host of media firms are listed as unsecured creditors including RTÉ, which is owed about €89,000 before including TG4, which is out of pocket by close to €27,000.

Independent News & Media, is owed €38,000. Poster Management Ltd's subsidiaries in Northern Ireland and the Republic are owed more than €50,000. The Irish Times Ltd is owed about €24,000.

The loss of the one of its biggest accounts, Allianz Insurance, to GT Media was cited as one of the factors precipitating the closure, according to managing director, Mr Padraic Guilfoyle. Along with the Johnson Wax account, which also moved elsewhere, it accounted for more than half of group turnover.

Earlier Mr Guilfoyle told The Irish Times that the general downturn in the advertising market had not helped.

The liquidation of Media Guilfoyle Communications was the second high-profile closure of an advertising agency recently, precipitated by a difficult market.

One of Dublin's oldest advertising agencies, Doherty Advertising, ceased trading in August with debts worth several million euros. As with Media Guilfoyle, it is unlikely that any unsecured creditors of Doherty will receive any dividend.

Doherty employed some 36 staff and counted some of the Republic's largest hospitals and local authorities as clients.

Creditors are owed approximately €7 million by Doherty Advertising but the company's books show trade debtors owing only close to €3.23 million. The estimated deficiency is €3.7 million. Former managing director of the company, Mr Mark Beggs, said recently that "sadly" no one apart from its bank, Ulster Bank, was likely to receive any money.