Home entertainment firm Xtra-vision has been bought by a new Irish company, Birchhall Investments, in a deal worth up to €32 million.
Birchhall, which is a consortium headed up by NCB Ventures, agreed the deal with US giant Blockbuster to take the company back into Irish ownership.
Xtra-vision employs 1,400 full-time and part-time staff and has 186 stores across the island of Ireland.
The eventual cost of the takeover will depend on Xtra-vision’s full-year results, which will be published early in 2010. The company made a profit of €6.2 million in 2008.
New CEO of Xtra-vision Tony Keating said the return to Irish hands was a welcome development.
'By once again becoming a stand-alone Irish-owned business with strong financial backing from its new owners, Xtra-vision looks forward to broadening its appeal to an even wider range of customers, strengthening its relationships with suppliers across its full range of products and further growing its retail business to match the strength of its rental franchise across Ireland,' said Mr Keating, who was formerly the company's finance director.
