- Monday 22 February 2010
Evgeny, left, and Alexander Lebedev at Downing Street. Feel free to post your caption suggestions below. Photograph: Guardian/Martin Argles
The deadline for a proposed deal in which the Russian billionaire would buy the newspaper and its sister Sunday title is this Friday, having been extended a week ago.
MediaGuardian understands that Independent News & Media is keen to conclude a deal before its results are unveiled on 24 March at the latest to appease shareholders (who were formerly bondholders). In November INM secured the backing of shareholders to complete a restructuring plan. Bondholders were left with 46% of the company in a deal to repay €200m (£173m).
Peter Kirwan today examined the details of the likely deal, which could cost INM around £20m, although closure would be more expensive.
Lebedev Sr promised to put £30m over three years into the London Evening Standard when he bought it last year. Lebedev's plans for the Independent remain tightly under wraps, although he is understood to have dropped a scheme to make former Radio 4 Today editor Rod Liddle the editor of his new newspaper.
Lebedev is believed to be playing hardball in the final stages of negotiations. Independent journalists have accepted a reduced redundancy package in the hope that this will make the deal happen. There have also been negotiations over a £19m printing contract with Trinity Mirror. It is understood that pensions are not an obstacle to the deal.
But pensions are understood to not have been a sticking point. The last time INM plc reported its financials, for the period to June 2009, the company disclosed a significant €150m hole in its overall pension fund. Given the recent history of another O'Reilly-backed company, Waterford Wedgewood, this deficit has caused concern among some observers in Ireland.
However, the accounts of the UK subsidiary companies that contain the Independent's assets and cashflows make no mention of a pension deficit relating to journalists on the Independent and Independent On Sunday. Instead, the accounts of Independent News and Media only mention a pension fund tied to the Belfast Telegraph, which has been part of the company since its acquisition by INM in 1999.
