Irish Press takes controlling stake in Eireann Healthcare

THE FORMER publisher of the Irish Pressnewspaper titles has taken a controlling stake in troubled medical publisher Éireann Healthcare Publications, which went into examinership last month amid doubt over the viability of its business.

Irish Press plc is understood to have invested a total of €380,000 for a 51 per cent interest in the company, which has debts of €1.3 million following a sharp deterioration in pharmaceutical advertising in its flagship title Medicine Weekly. The investment values the entire business, which is ultimately owned by a company called MC Publishing, at a little less than €746,000.

Preferential creditors - including the Revenue, which is owed €250,000 - will be offered 30 cent in the euro as part of the rescue package and unsecured creditors will be offered 10 cent in the euro. Creditors are likely to be told that the alternative to the plan is a liquidation in which they would not receive any payment.

While Medicine Weeklywill no longer be published by the company, the deal with Irish Press plc will facilitate the continuation of its event management and medical education activities and its other publications. These include the bi-monthly titles Modern Medicineand Hospital Doctor of Irelandand the quarterly titles Irish Psychiatrist, Cancer Wiseand Nutrition Wise.

Although the company's losses centred on Medicine Weekly, its founder and former controlling shareholder Chris Goodey said previously that the other parts of its business were profitable. Stating last month that Medicine Weeklywas on the market, he said then that the other parts of the business were not for sale. "Eireann Healthcare Publications are delighted with the development and are looking forward to a fruitful partnership with Irish Press plc," Mr Goodey said yesterday.

Michael McAteer of accountants Foster McAteer was examiner to the firm, which has sought since the start of May to ensure its long-term viability through a restructuring of the business. "The partnership will begin at the end of the examinership process," the company said in a statement.

Established in August 1997, Medicine Weeklywas in competition with the Irish Medical Timesand the Irish Medical News. The auditor's report with the last filed accounts for MC Publishing, for the 18 months to December 2006, indicates that it had been trying to raise additional funding.