Independent News & Media is looking to sell €100 million (£94.63 million) of assets in the next year to shore up its balance sheet and stay on the right side of its debt-to-profits ratio, according to the Sunday Business Post. INM doesn’t publish a figure, but in a trading update today confirms it has identified non-core assets to sell in the next year and will concentrate on “eliminating any loss-making businesses”. That doesn’t sound like good news for The Independent and Independent On Sunday, both of which are loss-making, though INM chiefs would argue that those flagship titles are core businesses.

The company made revenues of €1.4 billion (£1.32 billion) in 2008, down three percent year-on-year, and expects to post operating profits of at least €275 million (£260.23 million) in its full-year results on March 31. INM says it is releasing those unaudited figures, ahead of its full-year results on March 31, in response to a “significant and unwarranted” share price collapse in recent months. Shares are trading at £0.17 down from a 52-week high of £2.27. Independent.co.uk is quietly growing an online audience in the UK and abroad, but we will have to wait to see if INM can better its 27 percent online revenue increase for the year to October 2008. More after the jump…

—Profit forecast cut: INM joins every other newspaper publisher in bemoaning the “very challenging economic and advertising conditions” at the moment, but points out that 33 percent of the company’s revenues are not dependent on adverts. And that’s just as well: INM expects its publishing revenue to contract four to six percent on 07/08, with circulation revenue flat thanks to price rises from titles including The Independent, which now costs £1. INM forecasts operating profits for the 2009 calendar year of between €240 million (£227.15 million) to €270 million (£255.5 million), down as much as 10 percent on 2008. Capex will drop by more than 50 percent year on year in 2009, with only €30 million (£23.38 million) being spent across the group.

—Cost-savings: The company has undergone some serious cost-cutting to get to this stage: a large number of UK editorial redundancies, an office-sharing scheme with DMGT and now INM directors have agreed a 10 percent reduction in their fees and a halting of all bonus payments for 2008.

—APN update: INM is having trouble selling it’s Australian titles: having put APN News & Media on the market last year, in which it has a 39.1 percent stake and while there have been approaches for APN, with credit markets deteriorating—or rather, almost completely collapsing—would-be buyers have struggled to get a fully-financed deal together to meet INM’s preferred price.

• Indie Moves In With DMGT, Will Reportedly Merge IT Efforts
• Indie Axing Quarter Of Editorial, Says Online Requires Fewer Editors
• Independent In The Maelstrom: Selling Aussie Stake, DMGT Deal Looks Unlikely