Enda O’Coineen, the businessman who’s trying to buy out the Sunday Business Post, has recruited Galway newspaper man Declan Dooley to help him in his bid.
Mr Dooley created and operated the Galway Independent until it closed last year, and co-founded the Independent Free Newspaper Group which owns several other freesheets around Ireland.
The Irish Times reports that in the past few weeks Mr O’Coineen’s investment company Kilcullen Kapital have set up a new company to manage his bid for the paper called Encircle Business Post 365.
Mr Dooley is one of the chief directors of the new company along with two senior executives from Kilcullen, Colm O’Reilly and Roger Courtney.
Mr O’Coineen said that he brought his fellow Galway man on board for his experience in the sector, though there’s no information yet whether Mr Dooley will be involved in running the Sunday Business Post.
Enda O’Coineen is a graduate of NUI Galway who’s run a wide range of businesses including magazines, an insurance company, and a telecom multinational.
Aside from his business interests, the 63 year old is also a founder of the Volvo Ocean Race in Galway and the Irish Global Pubs Federation which has more then 7,000 members worldwide.
Regarding his bid for the Post, Mr O’Coineen cautioned that “nothing has been agreed yet” in negotiations with the main shareholder Key Capital.
However it’s understood that a price has been agreed for assets of Sunrise Media, the publishing company that owns the Post, and a deal could be signed off on as soon as this week.
If agreed, the purchase would have to be sent to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the government for approval.
It’s expected that if the sale goes through that Mr O’Coineen will continue the uninterrupted publishing of the business orientated printed newspaper.
The paper’s current editor Ian Kehoe has said that he intends to depart as soon as a replacement is found.
