A London based investment company has taken a 90% stake in Archant, the owners of the East Anglian Daily Times and Ipswich Star, with two of its holding companies going into administration.

Archant staff in Ipswich, Norwich and other areas, were today told that Rcapital Partners were the preferred buyers, after the publishing company had appealed for investment last month.

The move means Archant Limited and Archant Community Media Holdings Limited – will be placed into administration as a result of the move, although Archant Community Media Limited, the group's trading company and employer of its staff, will not be affected.

Industry newspaper Hold the Front Page reported how executive chairman Simon Bax said the business "will continue to operate as normal as a result of the move".

However, Archant is also to put forward proposals to its creditors for a Company Voluntary Arrangement, which would see its defined benefit pension scheme move into the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), a 'lifeboat' scheme set up by the government to provide pension benefits to members of schemes whose sponsoring employers have become insolvent, and as a result, the PPF will take a 10pc equity stake in the business.

Bax announced: "The vast majority of the company's creditors will not be adversely affected by the CVA, while none of its employees will be adversely affected.

He said: "Sadly, this is not the case for our shareholders. With Archant Limited being placed into administration there will be no residual value in the shares. This will also apply to shares held by employees in the Share Incentive Plan.

"This will be shocking and upsetting for all our shareholders but especially for those who are rightly proud of their families' personal connections with the company and our titles going back many years."

Archant has not had offices in Felixstowe for more than 20 years and Archant's print products are currently printed in Hertfordshire following the closure of the print works at Thorpe St Andrew in Norwich in September 2019.

Chris Campbell, partner at Rcapital, added: "We are incredibly pleased to have worked alongside Archant's management team and KPMG to put forward a plan that will restructure finances and inject fresh capital into one of Britain's oldest local newspaper brands.

"We are hopeful, that with the support of its creditors, Archant will emerge from this challenging period as a stronger business that continues to provide a vital service to its clients and readership.

"Today's announcement marks an exciting next phase for both Archant and Rcapital. I am looking forward to working with Simon and his team to deliver on the transformation plan."

Archant made a pre-tax loss of £7.6m in 2018 on group revenue of £87.3m, which was down 9.6% on the year before.

The group still relies on print for 78% of its total revenues, although advertising, which makes made up the bulk of its income, fell by 10.8% to £64.2m and newspaper circulation fell by 6.6% to £16.4m in 2018.

Meanwhile, Nub News is continuing to expand and is recruiting journalists in Suffolk: Contact [email protected] for more details.