INM sells off offices to Arnotts

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) have sold their Abbey Street offices for 26 million to Arnotts and the Kelly Group.

The sale will signal the end of newspaper production at Abbey Street and mean a massive expansion of the Arnotts store.

The sale was expected as Independent moved its printing facility to a state-of-the-art site in Citywest, Co Dublin. However, the editorial staff are expected to move to an office somewhere in central Dublin. An Independent spokesman said no decision on where to relocate staff had been finalised.

The sale of the building will be a boost to INM coffers and add to the 300 million already raised form disposals of British newspaper titles and rights issues.

The cash will be used to reduce Independent’s debts, which stood at 1.2 billion at the end of last year. The debt will now fall to below 1 billion by year end. The debt reduction will be crucial in order to receive an investment grade rating by one of the credit agencies.

Independent also announced yesterday that it will extend the availability of its new tabloid edition of the London Independent.

INM had initially launched the tabloid format in the greater London area, but from next week, it will be available in the north west of England.

The London Independent has added 20,000 additional sales a day with the tabloid picking up an extra 60,000-80,000 copies with the expansion. According to brokers yesterday that could add around 11 million in revenue to the group.

The London Independent, despite critical success, has consistently made losses since it was fully acquired by INM.

Meanwhile, the Irish titles of newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror look likely to be sold to venture capital group 3i, which entered into exclusive talks to buy the newspapers, including the Derry Journal and the Belfast News Letter.