Independent News & Media Share Discussion Threads

[lbo] 14/1/2010 21:42

One word! DEBT!!!



"Post restructuring the bondholders in the group will retain an equity interest of at least 47.7% and potentially more depending on the acceptance of existing shareholders in relation to the current rights issue" Either way the extend and pretend continues! Even after the restructuring they will still have circa €950m net debt by the end of 2010

[bongo bwana] 14/1/2010 16:52

What relevance has this news got for INM?????

[lbo] 14/1/2010 16:30

Coming to a newspaper near you soon?



O'Callaghan says investors to see pain

Businessman Barry O'Callaghan has confirmed that he and other Irish investors face losses of hundreds of millions of euro as a result of a dramatic decline in the value of his publishing company, EMPG.

He said his company will survive, but that "shareholders are under water."

[lbo] 14/1/2010 10:43

Or could the Irish taxpayers take a civil case against Mr O'Brien? Its not as if Ireland could not do with the money to bail out the banks!

[hermana] 14/1/2010 10:08

Lorry expects a good old fashioned hockeying in Moriarty report. Will losers in mobile licence pursue compo is another more important question than lorry's considerable ego.

[lbo] 14/1/2010 09:46

How long before the same is written on another Irish company!

EMPG shareholders face wipeout in bondholder deal

[lbo] 13/1/2010 23:06

Independent TD Michael Lowry has launched a passionate defence of his character and conduct during his time as a controversial Fine Gael Government Minister.

He's spoken to TV3 News ahead of the publication of the Moriarty Tribunal report.

It's expected to be highly critical of the way he awarded a mobile phone licence to Denis O' Brien's ESAT consortium, in 1995.

[lbo] 11/1/2010 22:48

Two units in O'Brien's aircraft leasing group to be wound up





Denis O'Brien has been the latest businessman affected by the downturn in the global aviation industry. Two units of Aergo Capital, O'Brien's aircraft leasing company, are to be wound up and a creditors' meeting will be held on January 12thwith a view to appointing a liquidator to Aergo Leasing and Aergo Omega Leasing.

[lbo] 11/1/2010 22:47

More a case of survival than of winning or losing



The Waterford collapse cost Sir Anthony O'Reilly and his brother-in-law Peter Goulandris some €400 million – an investment they had ploughed into the company in the desperate, futile attempt to help it tread water.

Through Independent News & Media's (IN&M's) ownership of the London Independent titles and the Sunday Tribune , O'Reilly was already an experienced proprietor of unprofitable ventures. But with advertising revenues dried up and Denis O'Brien fired up, 2009 was also to mark the end for his reign at IN&M too.

His exit from the IN&M board in March was, The Irish Times wrote, the end of an era in Irish commerce and the end of a remarkable career. After 36 years at IN&M, O'Reilly left the company under siege from "dissident" investor O'Brien, who brokered his exit while installing three of his lieutenants on the board.

The O'Reilly-O'Brien antagonism was all "water under the bridge", IN&M's new chief executive, Sir Anthony's son Gavin O'Reilly swiftly declared. It didn't quite work out that way. The various IN&M factions spent the rest of 2009 fighting off the demands of the bondholders to whom they owed €200 million.

Following a restructuring of the company's share capital, the nameless, faceless bondholders now have a 48 per cent stake in Ireland's biggest media group, while the year ended with the confirmation that IN&M has entered talks with Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev about the sale of the London titles. The empire built by Sir Anthony is, like the rest of the media sector, in retreat.

It was a strange, fitful year for O'Brien. When he wasn't watching the IN&M share price languish and staging more musical chairs in its boardroom, he was pulling his Boxer consortium out of digital terrestrial television.

Citing "prevailing and anticipated economic circumstances", Boxer left it to the Eircom-backed One Vision to go through the no-doubt delightful process of securing a transmission agreement with RTÉ.

Most of O'Brien's attention was not on exploiting the forthcoming analogue switch-off, but on fire- fighting the even more imminent arrival of the Moriarty tribunal's report on its investigation into whether money changed hands before former minister for communications Michael Lowry awarded the mobile phone licence to O'Brien's consortium, Esat Digifone, in 1996.

In something of a pre-emptive strike, O'Brien gave a series of newspaper interviews in July in which he called the tribunal "out of control" and revealed that it had made 60 findings against him. This was "a very dark period for justice. It's Burma," he explained, raising the hitherto unexpected vision of O'Brien as an Aung San Suu Kyi-like figure.

[hermana] 20/12/2009 22:32

Did he own shares here too? Seemed an ok fella but liked his toys/trophy women as much as other celtic cubs.

[lbo] 20/12/2009 21:32

Sadly things never are what they seem in Ireland at the moment especially when you add in the hidden liabilities in many Irish Companies and many Irish business people



Patrick Rocca, the high-profile property developer who killed himself in January, died penniless.His will, which went to probate last week, shows that his €5m estate was worthless after liabilities were calculated. Rocca was reported to have completed 20 property deals in the UK worth more than €300m. These included a €100m distribution deal with Argos, the retailer, and the acquisition of two office blocks near Gatwick Airport. In 2007 it was claimed that he had a fortune of €500m

[hermana] 18/12/2009 22:10

LBO,de russki is a showboater and into cravats,sucking up to bores like big ears charlie and generally behaving like a fella who got handed sweetheart deals by a drunk called yeltsin. Taking the queen's shilling(like O'Reilly) would be a wet dream for this ersatz.

[lbo] 18/12/2009 21:40

The Independent and its Sunday sister are struggling also-rans in an industry that is at best highly competitive, at worst dying. The pair need someone with deep pockets capable of reversing the haemorrhaging of readers. Less than 100,000 now cough up the full price for The Independent in the UK and Ireland; daily sales are down 14 per cent year-on-year. It is reckoned to be losing approaching £10m a year. Once they've done the arithmetic, sanctimonious readers should be glad they have a paper to read at all.

Finally, there is little evidence so far that Mr Lebedev would ride rough-shod over the newsroom. Nearly a year after buying London's Evening Standard there are few signs of tampering – a few more glacially beautiful Russian models and society tsarinas in the magazine pages, perhaps, but not enough to start a revolution. That could change with a national paper. But when Mr Lebedev bought the Standard, which he turned into a freesheet, he surmised merely that it would be "a good way to waste money". Clearly wasting cash is addictive – for which Independent readers should, on balance, be grateful.

[keelingr] 18/12/2009 16:36

The Market seems to like it LBO - up 23%!

[keelingr] 18/12/2009 15:58

Of course it will be for a nominal sum - but the sale will remove operating losses of €10m a year!

[lbo] 18/12/2009 15:53

FY10 sales for the UK division of €159.6m and an operating loss of €6.8m. Stripping out the forecast contribution from the Belfast Telegraph, estimated annual operating losses at the London titles of €9.7m. Based on the November data, falling circulation of 7.2% YoY at the Independent and 5.3% YoY at the Independent on Sunday, continues to put pressure on management to stem losses in light of the high debt level which estimated at €911m at the end of 2010. In light of the ongoing losses, any transaction is likely to be for a nominal sum!!!!

[hermana] 18/12/2009 15:05

Dirty oligarch dosh a sign of the times!!

[keelingr] 18/12/2009 14:57

"INM confirms Lebedev Indy talks"

[bongo bwana] 18/12/2009 10:32

Lets hope so KR.

Nice move up on the way.

[keelingr] 18/12/2009 10:25

"Russian in 'advanced' Indy talks - FT"

[bongo bwana] 18/12/2009 09:27

Secured 45,000 @11c.

Strong rumours of sales of London based titles to Ruussian oligarch imminent.

[lbo] 17/12/2009 17:43

O'Reilly family sees stake decrease in rights issue
Thursday 17th December 2009

[keelingr] 17/12/2009 08:00

Well, lets see if your prophecy of doom materialises LBO!