UTV, the Belfast-based broadcaster, has joined the group of creditors of Smart Telecom who are trying to force the company to pay them what they are owed. UTV is believed to be owed more than €100,000 by Smart for commercials and sponsorships run on its radio stations in the republic.

An action group of creditors, chaired by insolvency practitioner Martin Ferris, was set up last week to ensure outstanding payments were honoured. At least five creditors have already joined the group.

Smart is believed to owe about €35m to creditors, that include TV3, RTE, Bord Gais, ESB and MCI. The telco recently engaged Hugh Cooney of accountants BDO Simpson Xavier to advise it on a financial restructuring.

TV3 is owed about €500,000 for the sponsorship of its weather forecasts. The station has continued to use Smart’s branding on the bulletins but has received very little of its money.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Euphony, a group that resells landline telephone services to Irish customers, tabled a bid of €2m to Smart for its wholesale line rental (WLR) business at the start of October.

Smart’s management team, however, was unable to execute the deal when Eircom cut off its WLR customers. Eircom had given Smart three weeks’ notice of its intention to cease the service as it was owed €4m.

Brendan Murtagh, who along with his sons controls about 20% of Smart, has made a bid of €1 for the cash-strapped business, which would see it delist from the stock market. Shareholders will vote on the proposal at an extraordinary general meeting in Dublin on October 31.