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Reader's Digest UK officially files for administration

February 17th, 2010 by Chris St Cartmail

Reader's Digest has gone into administration after talks between its US parent group and the UK pensions regulator over its UK pension fund broke down.

The negotiations concerned how to fund the firm's £125 million pension fund deficit. According to parent group the Reader's Digest Association (RDA), the pensions regulator rejected a rescue plan to settle the longstanding liability.

Administrators are now looking for investors interested in a potential business sale.

The RDA filed for bankruptcy protection last year after struggling with interest payments on a £1.4 billion debt, though it is about to emerge from the US equivalent of administration after a successful financial restructuring.

In a statement regarding the UK company's collapse, the US group confirmed: "The decision by the RDA UK board to place the UK company into an orderly insolvency process follows the recent decision by the UK pensions regulator that it would not support an agreement already reached between RDA UK, the trustees of its pension plan and the UK Pension Protection Fund to settle a longstanding pension plan liability."

The world-famous Reader's Digest magazine has just over 500,000 subscribers in the UK.

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