The Leinster Leader board wants to retain ownership of the group's properties and buildings after the sale of its newspapers. It intends to lease them back to the new owners of the titles.
An information memorandum circulated in recent days to prospective buyers of the group indicates that the board might charge as much as €500,000 in rents on the properties, which have a transfer value of some €12 million.
With the group on the market since last week, the memorandum is understood to project a bullish outlook for a business based on an expected growth in advertising revenues.
Informed sources said the 40-page document reports that the group had €5.3 million in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the year to end of last August.
According to the memorandum, the group's board expects this figure to more than double to €11.1 million in the year to the end of August 2006.
The figure for the year to August 2004 does not include any contribution from the Tallaght-based Echo newspaper that the Leinster Leader group acquired last week for €5 million.
No figures are available for trading in the current financial year, although the figure projected to August 2006 accounts for an expected contribution from the Echo.
Sources close to the Leinster Leader board said that the group could fetch as much as €100 million. However, other provincial media sources which may yet bid for the group have put its valuation at €60-€70 million.
After the Echo acquisition, the group is a publisher of seven titles with a combined weekly circulation of 90,000. The group is chaired by accountant John McStay, who is a major shareholder. Another major shareholder, solicitor Anthony Collins, is deputy chairman.
