The unusual arrangement came to light after the US-headquartered media group filed a charge on the accounts of Wyndeham Bicester, the Walstead company that acquired Polestar Bicester’s equipment, and took on the site’s employees, at the beginning of the month.

Time Inc (UK) faced the prospect of the complete collapse of its supply chain – and the doomsday scenario of being unable to publish some of its titles – after most of Polestar’s operations went into administration in April. The publisher had moved all its work to Polestar in a sole supplier deal in the summer of 2014.

The Time Inc (UK) debenture filed against Wyndeham Bicester is for an unspecified amount, and an unspecified period.

The loan agreement dated 3 June states that it is secured against a raft of equipment at Bicester including the site’s seven web offset presses and associated bindery equipment.

The publisher does not have any shares in the business, which is wholly-owned by Walstead Investments according to the annual return that has just been filed.

One publishing industry expert commented: “From Walstead’s point-of-view this looks like a good deal for them, a very clever deal. Time Inc needed to find a solution to a very big problem.”

Wyndeham Group agreed a new sole supplier deal with Time Inc (UK) in June, with most of the work to be produced at Bicester. 

Previously, Wyndeham’s loss of its Time Inc contract (at the time IPC Media) in 2014 had resulted in multimillion pound costs for the print group, as it closed down the Wyndeham Heron factory as a direct result.

Guy Gleysteen, Time Inc's worldwide senior vice-president of production, did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokeswoman said: "We never comment on the terms of partner relationships."

Walstead Group chairman Mark Scanlon declined to comment.

Separately, Walstead has announced that it has completed the purchase of Austria-headquartered web offset group Leykam Let’s Print, a deal that will propel its overall turnover to almost €500m (£412m).

Walstead gained £33m in backing from private equity house Rutland Partners to help fund the deal.

It has also changed the name of Walstead Investments to Walstead UK as part of the new structure, and created two new Walstead companies: Walstead Group and Walstead CE.