‘Sunday Business Post’ owner buys printer in Cerberus deal

Key Capital, the investment house that is majority owner of the Sunday Business Post, has taken control of Webprint Concepts, the Cork-based company that has the contract to print the newspaper.

It recently bought Webprint's estimated €15 million loans from Cerberus, the US investment group that acquired the loans last year from Ulster Bank. It then appointed a receiver to the operating company as part of a consensual arrangement with Webprint.

The receiver sold the printing assets on to a Key Capital-backed entity within the last 10 days. The transaction appears to have been done using a company called Adenium.

A Key-backed company has also taken control of Webprint’s premises in a process that ran separately to the receivership.

It is believed that Donagh O’Doherty, who was the majority shareholder of Webprint prior to the restructuring, has retained a minority stake in the business. The minority shareholders in Webprint prior to the deal – members of the Barry family and the Gowan group – exited prior to the transaction with Key and are understood to have been repaid their investment.

Expansion

Mr O’Doherty’s wife is listed as a director of Adenium, while he is listed as the company secretary. He will continue to run Webprint on behalf of majority shareholder Key Capital, whose chief executive is former banker

Conor Killeen

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Mr O’Doherty declined to comment on the financial details but he confirmed that a restructuring had occurred.

“We are delighted to have reached a consensual agreement with Key Capital,” he said. “The company has exited Cerberus and the deal has improved the balance sheet. The plan now is to expand the business, as it is clear that trade is picking up.”

He said Webprint's 25 staff in Cork would be unaffected by the transaction. As well as printing the Post, it also prints titles including the Racing Post and the Clare Champion. Mr O'Doherty said it had also opened up a new revenue stream, printing leaflets for grocery multiples in Britain.

Cerberus bought the Webprint loans as part of the Ulster Bank’s €6.5 billion Project Aran portfolio.