Caught between an advertising recession, the changing news business and an ugly balance sheet, Independent News & Media has conjured an ambitious plan cut its debt by €350 million (£321.8 million) this year.

INM is asking bondholders, who are owed €300 million (£275.8 million), to write off almost half that debt in return for new shares representing 46 percent of the company. And it’s calling on shareholders to back a heavily discounted rights issue. Release

This all means that the company is not—in the immediate future—shutting or selling The Independent and Independent on Sunday, despite the protests of rebel shareholder Denis O’Brien, who owns 26.4 percent of shares and has repeated his calls for the loss-making title to be jettisoned

INM hasn’t ruled out selling the Indy and would surely be all ears to a credible offer—but as it pointed out earlier this month, “an immediate closure of these titles would carry significant guaranteed contractual costs”.

Refinancing details…

—Bondholder deal IThe company needs bondholders representing 75 percent of the bond’s value to green light the deal; so far a committee representing 39 percent have agreed to take part.

—Rights issue: The shares are heavily discounted by 81 percent to €0.05. But the rights issue is conditional on the bondholder debt-for-equity deal going through.

—New banking deal: Debt covenants have been revised with a new four-and-a-half-year timeframe. Bank approval is needed for that but INM says the deal has “broad support” of its lending banks.

—Sale cash in the bank: The rest of the cash has already been raised from selling off stakes in foreign media businesses such as a 7.3 percent in Indian publisher Jagran Prakashan. The board has agreed to sell South African advertising business INM Outdoor, but shareholders will vote on that sale at an Extraordinary General Meeting.

Release.

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