The UK’s fourth biggest local newspaper publisher Archant has been bought out by a private equity firm in a deal which leaves shareholders with nothing.

Under the deal Rcapital Partners will take a 90% stake in the company, which publishes the The New European and the Eastern Daily Press as well as a number of local weekly news titles and monthly magazines.

Archant is putting forward proposals for a Company Voluntary Arrangement which will see the company’s creditors – including HMRC and its bank – receive only a portion of what they are owed. The company’s pension scheme, which is believed to have deficit of around £50m, will be taken over by the government’s Pension Protection Fund.