Clear Leisure reaches settlement with Mediapolis creditor

Clear Leisure issued a further update to its settlement negotiations with creditors of its Mediapolis subsidiary on Thursday, announcing it has now exchanged letters with an unnamed creditor to a settlement of a €4.3m (£3.8m) debt.

The AIM-traded firm said that was at a discount of 88.3% to the face value of the amount owed.

Its board said that equated, on a consolidated basis, to a significant improvement in the group’s balance sheet of approximately €3.8m, equal to £3.36m or 1.07p per share.

Completion was expected in the “next few days”.

The company said it was financing the acquisition of the debt with a €0.5m secured loan from an unnamed UK private company.

“This agreement, following 10 months of complex negotiation, represents an important result in the company’s strategy of restructuring the group’s debt and ring-fencing of assets,” said Clear Leisure chairman and CEO Francesco Gardin.

“During the past 18 months’ the company has negotiated discounts of €7.5m on debt, equivalent to an average discount of 80%.

“The board is of the opinion that this debt purchase significantly strengthens Mediapolis’s case to have the winding-up petition dismissed, when the Ivrea Court reconvenes on 29 September.”