In separate deals, the Edinburgh-based newspaper group has paid 65m for Local Press Group and 93.3m (139m) for The Leinster Leader.

The deal for Local Press will bring 12 new titles to Johnston. Eight of these are published in Northern Ireland, including Belfast's News Letter, with three in the Republic of Ireland and one paper published in both.

Six weekly paid-for regional papers in the Republic of Ireland, and an evening newspaper which is published three times a week, will join Johnston as part of the Leinster Leader deal.

A new print facility on a greenfield site in Limerick, which will allow the group to print all its titles in-house, is also part of the deal.

The transactions will give Johnston Press a strong foothold in the Irish market, after it bought Scottish and Northern Irish publisher Score Press for 155m earlier in the summer.

That deal gave Johnston Press two new print sites in Scotland and one, Mortons of Portadown, in Northern Ireland, where Irish editions of the Berliner Guardian are being printed.