Independent News & Media is reported to be selling off assets in order to meet its next debt repayment. They include INM's 49% stake in Verivox, a German-based website, according to a Sunday Times story which also predicts that more online properties could follow.
There are concerns over INM's net debt of €1.4bn (£1.3bn), which sent its shares plunging 46% last week on the Dublin stock exchange, valuing the business at just €159m (£148m).
Its chief executive, Tony O'Reilly, is haunted by the need for INM to redeem a €200m (£187m) bond in May. Yet a hoped-for sale of its 39% stake in the Australasian newspaper and radio group APN seems to have stalled.
Meanwhile, there is increasing speculation about its ownership of The Independent and the Independent on Sunday in Britain. The papers' move to the offices of the Daily Mail & General Trust (now expected in April) may staunch their £10m-a-year losses, but a disposal is still possible.
Though Alexander Lebedev, the new owner of the London Evening Standard , has denied claims that he has talked about buying the titles, he might yet be tempted to do so. And O'Reilly might well be forced to sell if he cannot raise cash elsewhere.
