Interim examiner appointed to two companies who publish Golden Pages
A High Court judge has appointed an interim examiner to two related companies involved in specialised sales and marketing and in publishing the Golden Pages directory and employing 103 people,
The petition for court protection and examinership follows a decision by the FCR media group, of which both companies are part, to withdraw from its interests in the Irish market.
As a result of that, Dublin based FCR Media Ltd cannot continue to meet its obligations as they fall due, it was stated in the petition for examinerhsip. Its debts to creditors as of July 21st last were €5.5m.
Liquidaiton of the company would mean a €8.9m deficit of liabilities over assets and would not be in the interests of the company, its employees or creditors, it said.
FCR Media Ltd publishes the Golden Pages directory and it said the occasion of the 50th edition of Golden Pages in 2018/19 may be an "appropriate time" to terminate its publication. Circulation of the directory has decreased in recent years from 1.3m copies in 2012 to 950,000 last year.
While publication of Golden Pages was historically the core business, the company has had over the year to vary its offerings to meet changing consumer trends and offers a suite of services to help mainly small businesses in setting up and improving their online busiess profiles, the petition stated.
FCR Media Ltd employs 103 people, 24 of whom were put on notice of redundancy last July, while FCR Tech UAB, incorporated in in Lithuania, is its sole shareholder and holds the intellectual property rights to Golden Pages.
On the petition of the two companies, presented by Declan Murphy BL today, Mr Justice Robert Haughton said he was satisfied from evidence before the court the two companies have a reasonable prospect of survival provided certain conditions are met, including approval of a survival scheme, securing investment and restructuring or refinancing secured debt.
He appointed Neil Hughes interim examiner and returned the petition for hearing on August 5th.
The alternative to examinership was a winding up with a deficit of €8.9m liabilities over assets, he noted.
Mr Muprhy earlier told the court the forecasts for 2017 and 2018 are positive.
Both companies form part of the FCR media group which provides search and advertising services in 10 countries in Europe and has more than 1000 employees across its operations.
The petition said the Dublin company had traded at breakeven levels over the last five years with net assets of €3.2m at December 31st 2016 but, under current accounting standards, its full liability to the defined benefit pension scheme is not recognised in the accounts.
In 2015 it entered a funding agreement for €3.7m to be paid into the scheme over a ten year period but payments under that would increase signficiantly in 2018, it said. It was also competing with direct marketing services provided by entities including Google and Facebook but had made significant investment in its operations.
It had been unable to secure financial support from the FCR media group for its efforts to migrate customers prior to discontinuing the Golden Pages directory but had a letter of support from a financial services company which currently provides it with an invoice discounting facility.
