James Crean is close to completing the sale of its Staples paper subsidiary in Britain for around £12 million. The proceeds of the sale will mean that Crean has raised £37 million in the sale of assets this year.

Crean, whose shares have performed dismally in the past few years, announced last June that it was focusing its business on three divisions - print/packaging, food and electrical distribution. The restructuring has done little, however, to reassure investors and Crean's share prices has slumped to 125p from 240p earlier this year and a fraction of the 716p high it reached seven years ago. This year has seen heavy stock selling by Irish institutions with overseas investors buying, attracted apparently by the huge discount to Crean's break-up value.

"Our `sum of the parts price to sales estimate' is supported by Crean's net asset value of circa 220p (inclusive of goodwill). However, we still find it hard to recommend the shares without a catalyst for change. The existing management has had little success in safeguarding shareholder value over the last few years. We believe current shareholders are best placed to provide this catalyst." said NCB analyst, Mr Rory Gillen.

He added that, even with £37 million disposals, Crean will would be left with negative cash flow this year.