Vincent Browne among ‘Sunday Business Post’ creditors likely to take hit

Contributors to paper, mostly freelances, will receive just 15% of what they are owed if rescue deal is approved

Broadcaster Vincent Browne is set to lose a five-figure sum as a result of the Sunday Business Post’s financial predicament
Broadcaster Vincent Browne is set to lose a five-figure sum as a result of the Sunday Business Post’s financial predicament


Creditors of the Sunday Business Post publisher Post Publications Ltd will be paid about €211,000 – a fraction of what they are owed – under the deal reached by the company's examiner with the buyers of the newspaper.

Contributors to the newspaper, mostly freelance journalists, are owed almost €179,000, but will receive just 15 per cent of this if the examiner’s scheme of arrangement is approved as expected at a creditors’ meeting in Dublin tomorrow.

Among individual journalists, broadcaster Vincent Browne is set to lose a five-figure sum as a result of the Sunday Business Post's financial predicament. He is owed €25,020, according to documents distributed to creditors, but is in line to receive just €3,753 of this.

Iconic Media Limited, the firm used by economist David McWilliams, is owed €13,284. Columnist Tom McGurk is owed €11,640 and the polling company Red C is owed €9,785.

READ SOME MORE

Finance house Key Capital and Paul Cooke, the former managing director of the Irish Daily Star, are buying the newspaper through a vehicle called Brindisi Ltd.

Key Capital and Cooke have agreed to invest €750,000 in the newspaper, with €260,000 of this money set aside for examinership fees of €155,000 and legal fees of €105,000.

The money owed to three creditors has yet to be agreed.

Unsecured creditors are owed €2.1 million and will receive just 2.5 per cent of the sums they are due. Within this category is Irish Life, which is owed almost €2 million.

Preferential creditors are owed €288,611. Some €246,920 of this sum is due to the Revenue Commissioners for PAYE/PRSI and VAT.

Before the deal was reached, nine members of its 76 staff left under a voluntary redundancy scheme and further cuts to its operational costs are expected.

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery is an Irish Times journalist writing about media, advertising and other business topics