Publisher of 'Irish Examiner' in receivership

After months of preparation and much speculation in media circles, Cork-based Thomas Crosbie Holdings was placed in receivership yesterday, thereby relinquishing control of the Irish Examiner national daily newspaper and a raft of other titles and radio stations.

It also ended a long association with the venerable Cork newspaper of two branches of the Crosbie family, including chairman Alan Crosbie.

In a complex restructuring, his cousin Tom Crosbie, supported by his father Ted, has taken control of most of the media assets of TCH via a new company called Landmark Media Investments Ltd.

It was not clear last night how much Mr Crosbie has paid or what funding he might be providing for the business going forward.

Neither Mr Crosbie nor Landmark’s chief executive Tom Murphy, who previously led TCH, were available for comment last night.

‘Fresh start’

In a statement, Mr Murphy said this deal would allow the Examiner and associated assets to make a “fresh start”.

It secures 554 jobs, which will transfer to the new entity on the same terms and conditions.

However, the Sunday Business Post, which employs 76 people, will today seek to enter examinership. It is understood the Sunday newspaper was excluded from the Landmark deal as AIB, TCH’s main lender, did not have a charge over its assets.

Landmark and Mr Crosbie are expected to seek to acquire the Sunday title from the examiner.

The restructuring deal was executed by way of a pre-pack receivership, which had been in preparation for some months and involved Kieran Wallace of KPMG, whose other roles include an appointment as special liquidator of IBRC.

TCH was loss-making (it dropped €5.8 million in the year to the end of January 2011), had significant debt (€19.1 million) and was locked into a printing contract that it could no longer afford given the collapse in newspaper sales and advertising since 2006.

AIB, its main lender, supported the financial restructuring. The bank is thought to be owed about €15 million. It was not clear yesterday if AIB was writing off any of this debt. AIB would say only it had “agreed to extend significant additional refinancing facilities” to Landmark.

Change of ownership

There will be losers from this change of ownership. One of those would appear to be Webprint Concepts Ltd, a company based in Mahon Point that had the contract to print TCH’s newspapers.

It began operations at a new plant in Mahon Point in 2006, signing a lucrative contract with TCH. TCH accounts for about two-thirds of Webprint’s business.

Latest accounts for Webprint show it made a profit of €1.76 million from turnover of €15.3 million in 2011.

TCH is believed to have sought to renegotiate the contract with Webprint.

Ulster Bank could lose out on the double from the restructuring. It is owed about €5 million by TCH, which is secured by a charge on 3.6 acres of land and facilities at Mahon Point.

It is also a lender to Webprint. At the end of 2011, Webprint’s bank loans stood at €9.64 million. Of this, €3 million was due to be repaid in 2012 and the same amount this year.

Ulster Bank acknowledged that it has an “exposure” to both TCH and Webprint, but declined to comment on the details.

In addition, Thomas Crosbie Printers Ltd, a related entity to TCH, is to be liquidated, with the loss of 12 jobs.

Thomas Crosbie Holdings: The assets

‘Evening Echo’

Introduced by Thomas Crosbie in 1892 and traditionally sold by street vendors known as “Echo Boys”, the Cork evening title’s advertising revenues and circulation have both been under pressure.

Other local titles

The Nationalist (Carlow) and sister titles the Kildare Nationalist and the Laois Nationalist were among the group’s boom-era purchases, as were the Wexford Echo and the Waterford News and Star.

TCM

TCH's new media division TCM includes RecruitIreland.com, Motornet.ieand BreakingNews.ie, which features content from TCH newspaper titles. This division will also transfer to Landmark Media Investments.

‘Western People’

This was the first purchase made under the expansion led by former TCH managing director Anthony Dinan. The Mayo title has the second-largest circulation of its local papers, behind the Echo.

‘The Irish Examiner’

Founded in 1841 as the Cork Examiner by John Francis Maguire and later taken over by editor Thomas Crosbie, the title was renamed the Examiner in 1996 and the Irish Examiner in 2000.

Thomas Crosbie Holdings expanded rapidly from the mid-1990s, buying up regional newspaper titles, radio shareholdings and some online media interests. It began cutting costs in 2009, and since then has closed Kerry paper The Kingdom and offloaded the Sligo Weekender, the Newry and Down Democrat and the Irish Post.

‘Roscommon Herald’

In 2004, TCH spent €8 million in its acquisition of the Roscommon Herald. The paper’s former chief executive Brian Nerney took legal action against TCH last year, in which it was said in court that TCH was in a “perilous” financial position.

Radio stations

TCH has a 75 per cent stake in WLR FM, through a company called South East Broadcasting. It also has a majority stake in Beat 102-103 FM, a 35 per cent stake in Cork youth station Red FM and a 17.6 per cent stake in MidWest Radio.