Limerick paper to be sold to Leader Group in €20m deal

The Limerick Leader is to be sold to the publisher of the Leinster Leader in a deal likely to be worth about €20 million.

Negotiations were being finalised between the two companies yesterday and a final sale deal is expected to be announced early next week.

Neither party would comment on the transaction last night but records set by previous acquisitions in the regional newspaper sector suggest it would be fair to presume that the Limerick newspaper carries a price tag somewhere in the region of €20 million.

This would equate to about 15 times the €1.3 million post-tax profit made by the paper last year.

Meanwhile, reports that Navan-based newspaper the Meath Chronicle is also on the verge of changing hands could not be confirmed yesterday. It is thought that the newspaper, owned by the Davis family, may be subject to an offer from a British media company.

Meath Chronicle managing director Mr Jack Davis, who is believed to have come under pressure from fellow directors to agree to a sale, declined to respond to calls from The Irish Times last night.

The Navan-based newspaper invested almost €4 million on building a state-of-the-art printing plant a few years ago and currently prints titles for several clients. A price for the company is as yet unknown.

The Limerick Leader was founded at the end of the 19th century by Dubliner Jeremiah Buckley and has been held within the Buckley family ever since.

The company is currently held in three blocks by four shareholders, all of whom are Buckley family relatives.

It is unclear how the proceeds from the sale of the company will be divided among the shareholders: Ms Fiona Buckley, Mr John Wright, Mr Shay McAuliffe and Mr Tom McAuliffe.

The Limerick Leader has been an acquisition target for several months, attracting the attention of both the Leader Group and British media company Scottish Radio Holdings earlier this year.

At one point Scottish Radio Holdings looked to be close to agreeing a purchase price but talks subsequently collapsed.

The Kildare-based Leader Group is believed to have re-entered acquisition negotiations relatively recently.

Under the chairmanship of Mr John McStay, the company has been highly acquisitive over the past few years and is currently owner of the Leinster Leader, the Leinster Express, the Offaly Express and the Dundalk Democrat. The company is also held privately, with ownership divided among a small number of shareholders.

The Limerick Leader currently employs about 70 staff, of whom 20 are journalists.

The company publishes both daily and weekly titles and has, throughout its history, maintained a strong separation between commercial and editorial interests in its papers.

It is not known how the change in ownership will affect operations at the paper.

The acquisition is the latest of a large number of sales to be concluded in the regional Irish newspaper market over the past few years, with ownership slowly consolidating among a handful of larger media groups.