Once again, the minnow that is Barry O'Callaghan's EMPG-Riverdeep-HMH-et al. will be restructured.
Like a person who cannot seem to find the right arrangement for the furniture, EMPG is trying yet another financial grouping in the hope that all that debt will finally fit into a tiny fishbowl.
For the Irish people, it's not good news. Much of Riverdeep's debt was funded via loans from Anglo-Irish Bank, which was on the way to Davy Jones' locker until the government took it over. In essence, there's no return on that particular investment and the Irish are left with the empty pockets.
The highly respected Davy Stockbrokers firm is making calls to the very same people they called a few years back, touting the brilliance of Barry O'Callaghan's scheme. Now they're following up, to inform the investors that their investment is wiped out in a tsunami of restructuring.
What of the nervous little fish manning the offices of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt? Not to worry, say the suits in the corner offices. The fact that EMPG is going to be owned by the banks who loaned all the money won't make a lick of difference in day-to-day operations.
Do worry about the Dail, where your new bosses sit in government. Fine Gael is spouting vitriol at Fianna Fail over their failed policies. It is to be hoped that the politicians don't try to actually run EMPG now that they've snagged it in their bank bail-out net.
From RTE's David Blake comes this analysis, available here.
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