Last month it emerged that All Island Media planned to acquire Kodak’s 84% stake in loss-making KP Services for a token sum of £2.

All Island Media also intends to acquire the remaining 16% stake that is owned by Kodak’s original joint venture partner The Guiton Group.

KP Services is the only printer of newspapers in the Channel Islands and was set up with two Kodak Prosper 6000P high-speed inkjet web presses and four Hunkeler Combi-Solution newspaper finishing lines.

In its ruling, the JCRA said there were no anti-competitive issues because the declining market for printed newspapers made it extremely unlikely that another entrant would choose to set up such a printing plant on the island in the future.

It noted that Kodak had been providing financial support to KP Services but this was unlikely to continue beyond its current commitment, which will end in May 2024. The financial details regarding KP Services were redacted from the report. 

“The Authority notes that the proposed transaction would result in a change of control of the Target Business [KP Services] but would not change the structure of the newspaper printing market,” it stated.

The JCRA’s decision ruling said: “The Jersey Evening Post focuses on local Jersey news, whereas the national newspapers focus on UK news. The authority considers the types of printed newspapers each serve a different purpose and so there would be no incentive for the merged entity to reduce the printing of national news with a view to increasing the sales of printed local news.

“Furthermore, the proposed transaction will maintain the printing capacity of physical newspapers in Jersey and consumer choice. Therefore, the proposed transaction will not give rise to a substantial lessening of competition on any reasonable basis.”

On that basis the transaction was approved under the relevant law.