An interim examiner has been appointed to telecoms company Smart Telecom.
The High Court heard that it owes its creditors around €70 million in loans and interest.
Smart is controlled by Cavan-born businessman and Kingspan shareholder Brendan Murtagh. The Court heard that Mr Murtagh had put a large amount of his personal finances into the company.
It heard that in recent months the company has refocused its business, undergone significant restructuring which involved 30 redundancies, and shifted its business model towards corporate and Government customers and away from residential. Lyndon McCann, Senior Counsel of behalf of Smart, told the High Court that there had been an unsuccessful takeup in the refocused business model.
Smart has approximately 12,000 residential customers and 500 corporate, government and medium sized business customers. It provides broadband to 500 schools.
The company has 57 employees.
The High Court heard it has a reasonable prospect of survival with two potential investors waiting in the wings.
In a statement, the company said that it had consulted the Commission for Communications Regulation (Comreg) regarding the examinership process. It said that the process should have no impact on the underlying business.
It points out that the company completed a detailed cost reduction and re-structuring programme in the first half of 2009, which resulted in a reversal of operating losses. It also reported a positive EBITDA for the second quarter of 2009, the first period in which Smart has reported positive EBITDA since the company was founded in 2000.
According to the statement, Smart is currently in advanced discussions with a small number of third parties who have expressed interest in acquiring the entire customer base and assets of the Company. The Company intends to utilise the examinership process to finalise the terms of an investment or merger with one of the interested parties.
