An interim examiner was appointed by the High Court yesterday to Chorus Communications, which trades as Chorus and which is based in Co Limerick and to a related company, Princes Holdings.

Chorus has approximately 550 employees and outstanding debts of about €385 million, including shareholders' loans and bank debts, the court heard.

Liberty Media Corporation - currently an indirect shareholder - and certain of its subsidiaries intend to invest in Chorus if the examinership is successful, Mr Justice Kelly was told.

A statement on behalf of Chorus said Liberty Media owned interests in a broad range of electronic retailing, video programming, broadband distribution and communications businesses and operated in the US, Europe, South America and Asia.

The principal activities of Chorus are the provision of digital and analogue television retransmission services via cable and MMDS and telecommunications services.

The company said it would continue to provide services to customers during the examinership.

In the petition to the High Court, it was stated, despite approaches to the group's banking consortium and shareholders, it had not proved possible at this stage to agree further funding. Chorus and PHL were currently unable to pay their debts.

The appointment of an examiner would give the companies time to procure further investment required to facilitate the business going forward on a revised footing.

Chorus and PHL were convinced, with fresh investment, that it would be possible not only to deal with existing indebtedness but also to make necesssary funds available to upgrade networks to facilitate an expansion of the digital television service and the high speed internet service.

Mr Justice Kelly appointed Mr John McStay as interim examiner and fixed February 11th for dealing with the examinership application.

From evidence, it was clear that in the event of liquidation proceedings, the consequences for the creditors would be extremely serious, the judge said.

There were about 550 employees and liquidation would have disastrous consequences for them, to say nothing of the customers.

Independent accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, in a report, had expressed the opinion, subject to certain conditions, that Chorus had a reasonable prospect of survival as a going concern.

There were several matters which gave rise to opinion that the companies did have a reasonable prospect of survival, subject to a number of conditions, the judge added.

The companies ought to have the opportunity of attempting to get a rescue plan under way.