THE HIGH Court yesterday gave the green light to the appointment of an interim examiner at Eircom and associated companies to seek to implement a consensual restructuring of its €4.1 billion gross debts.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday afforded the protection of the court to Eircom, its mobile arm Meteor and its treasury division Irish Telecommunications Investments Ltd for the period of the interim examinership.
He set April 18th as the date for a hearing on a full examinership, a process that protects companies from creditors for up to 100 days.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Kelly said Eircom was “of great strategic importance for the State” and a “key provider of fixed-line services throughout the country”.
He noted how Eircom’s net debt had risen from less than €500 million at the time of its stock market flotation in 1999 to the current “crippling” level. The judge said this made “sad reading for the State and its citizens”.
Mr Justice Kelly said Eircom had been the subject of a “corporate pass the parcel” game, in which some players had “won handsomely”.
He noted that while Eircom was trading profitably, its profits were declining and it also had significant capital expenditure commitments relating to a next generation fibre network that would allow it to keep pace with developments in the telecoms market.
