TRUSTEES of Trinity Mirror’s pension funds have asked advisers to test the financial strength of the company in the wake of weak trading across the newspaper industry.

They are understood to have requested that Close Brothers assess Trinity’s ability to meet its covenant to maintain future repayments into the schemes. Close, which was first appointed by the trustees 18 months ago, could recommend they are given added security such as a guarantee over certain assets.

The move is a surprise after Trinity, owner of national and regional newspapers including the Daily Mirror and South Wales Echo, pledged to put an extra £108m into the schemes last year.

The sum, part of the proceeds of a disposal programme, trimmed the pension deficit from £154m to a more manageable £46m.

However, trustees are understood to be worried after the turmoil at rival group Johnston Press, which resorted to a £212m rights issue and investment by Ananda Krishnan, Malaysia’s second-richest man, to cut its borrowings.

The pension funds of the Mirror Group – which merged with Trinity to create Trinity Mirror – were notoriously plundered for £500m by former proprietor, the late Robert Maxwell.

Trinity’s debts are far smaller than those of Johnston’s. Trinity chief executive Sly Bailey raised £246m last autumn from the sale of the Racing Post and a clutch of smaller titles in southern England. It retained its Midlands newspapers, including the Birmingham Post, after bids fell short of expectations.

Group debt was pushed up to £410m from £248m because of the pension contribution and a £175m share buyback.

The company’s market value is only £486m after a 64% fall in its share price in the past 12 months – in line with the sell-off across stocks exposed to advertising income. Bailey issued a cautious trading update at the annual shareholders’ meeting last month. She reported a trading outlook that was in line with expectations and a slowing decline in national advertising income.

Trinity’s annual report shows that the actuarial value of pension-scheme liabilities is £1.54 billion, against a fair value of assets of £1.46 billion. The company stepped up payments after the last actuarial review.

Its final-salary schemes, which closed to new members in 2003, have 10,000 current and deferred members.

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