The Scottish-headquartered business has been the subject of much speculation over the last few months with several Sunday broadsheets, including the Sunday Times, reporting at the weekend that the company is looking to sell off some of its titles and has brought in KPMG to help it restructure £450m of debt.

However, a spokesman for Johnston Press told PrintWeek that reports that KPMG had been appointed to restructure company debt are not entirely accurate.

He said: "KPMG was appointed a couple of weeks ago, but newspaper reports have exaggerated their role. They have been brought in to assist in a preparatory role in advance of renewing Johnston Press's banking facility in late 2009."

The debt is due to be renewed in late 2010, but Johnston Press said in a statement to the stock exchange in November last year that the company would be looking to address this much earlier.

However, the spokesman added that this would not be until after the 2008/09 financial year had closed.

With regards to the possible sale of Johnston Press's Irish titles, the spokesman was keen to clear up the role of Irish corporate finance advisor Raglan Capital.

He said: "Raglan approached Johnston Press in late 2008 claiming that there were several interested parties in the Irish titles. It must be made clear that the initial approach was made by Raglan, not Johnston Press.

"A process is under way with regards to a sale of the Republic of Ireland titles and that would be for the publishing and the printing. But no figures have been discussed and there is no guarantee that the Johnston Press board would accept a deal."