Irish publisher hopes for write-off

Dublin: Indebted Irish publisher Independent News & Media plans to ask its lenders to write off up to €100 million (Dh470 million or $127 million) of debt as part of a wider overhaul, Britain’s Sunday Times reported.

The company on Friday said it will need urgent and substantial restructuring in response to high levels of debt and tough trading. A spokesman on Sunday declined to comment on the report that the company was seeking to write off debt.

The publisher hopes to secure agreement on the debt write-off with a consortium of eight banks by early next year, the newspaper reported without citing sources.

The restructuring will also include a rights issue, a radical cost-cutting programme and the sale of the company’s South African unit, the report said.