Inquirer's new owner: 'This deal is going to closing.'

The new owners of The Inquirer will not be deterred by any additional costs to resolve claims by the company's unions, a lawyer for the ownership group said Thursday.

Abid Qureshi, who represents Philadelphia Media Network Inc., as the new company is known, said his clients would find a way to deal with any new costs and close on their purchase by the end of August.

"This deal is going to closing," Qureshi said, after a hearing on a company request that its unions turn over financial data being used to determine what, if anything, the unions are owed in pension shortfalls triggered by the sale of the media firm.

Philadelphia Media Network is a collection of 16 financial institutions that purchased The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com at auction in April for $139 million. It outbid Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. and its chief executive officer, Brian P. Tierney.

In buying the properties, Philadelphia Media Network said it would not take responsibility for funding the employees' pension funds.

The pension funds have countered that the sale would create about $174 million in fund shortfalls. One fund, the Teamsters', has informed the new company that it plans to file $1.7 million in claims for the portion of its shortfall that was accrued since Philadelphia Newspapers declared bankruptcy Feb. 22, 2009.

The new owners are concerned that if other unions file similar claims, the company could face in excess of $10 million in unexpected costs coming out of bankruptcy.

At the hearing, lawyers for the company and the Teamsters said they had reached an agreement on the data the company was seeking. The information included monthly valuations of the pension funds, calculations used to determine individual pension benefits, and how the unions determined what shortfalls were accrued while the company was in bankruptcy.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Raslavich set an Aug. 16 hearing date to review any claims the unions and other potential creditors might make against the company before its exiting bankruptcy.