Niall McFadden's AIM-listed investment vehicle announced on Friday that "events in the credit markets over the summer" meant that welladvanced plans for the deal had been delayed.

ClubCo was acquired in 2006 for �96m using debt and equity bridging finance.

Boundary later raised �33m of equity from its own private clients and clients of RQB, a joint venture between Boundary and Redquartz, which was used to pay down part of the debt raised to finance the deal. ClubCo's properties were valued in excess of �95m, which meant Boundary may have hoped to recoup most of the purchase price through the property deal.

Boundary's postponement of the proposed sale and leaseback is one of the first Irish deals to be affected by the global credit crunch.

However, corporate financiers have said most domestic deals remain unthreatened by the crisis.

"Things have certainly got tighter and there is likely to be an impact on big private company deals when banks and credit committees view them, " said Jim Mulqueen, corporate finance partner at Farrell Grant Sparks.

However, Mulqueen believed that the current crisis was unlikely to affect the lower end of the market.

"The fundamentals are still the same and private company M&A deals should still go ahead. The banks are very competitive in this area and they'll continue to try to win business, " he said.

PWC corporate finance partner David Tynan believed the credit crunch would affect the 'mega deals' only where debt is syndicated to a wide range of banks.

"We have several completions going through this week and there has been no problem with finance. We haven't seen any tangible impact and credit at the smaller end of the market is still widely available. Where I think you will see an impact is in the quantum of debt provided and that would affect some of the highlevel deals, " he said.

However, highly-leveraged deals such as Riverdeep's takeover of part of the Reed Elsevier publishing group could be a thing of the past as the global credit crunch deters banks from allowing firms to use massive amounts of debt to finance ambitious deals.

The Irish-owned educational software firm spent $4bn in July on acquiring the Reed companies, which included $3.5bn in debt from Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers and Citigroup.

The firm also borrowed heavily for its reverse takeover of Houghton Mifflin last year and its total debt burden is now thought to be in the region of $7.5bn.

Although its most recent deal was announced just weeks prior to the credit crunch, the company has said its financing remains secure.

"I think [Riverdeep executive chairman] Barry O'Callaghan got his timing just right on that deal. I couldn't see him doing a deal like that today, " said one Dublinbased corporate financier, who also speculated that Quinlan Private's recent 1.16bn acquisition of the Jurys Inn hotel chain might not have gone ahead in the current climate.

Mark Fenelon, a director of Whitebridge Capital, said the big impact of the sub-prime mortgage-generated crisis would be on mezzanine-type debt, which is secured only against a company's assets and subordinate to senior debt, which is the first to be repaid in the event of bankruptcy.

Although riskier, mezzanine debt provides high returns, which has made it attractive to investors. From the borrowers' perspective, aggressive use of mezzanine finance protects their share of equity in a firm, since they don't have to sell a stake to investors.

"In recent years we have seen huge prices paid for global corporations and it has become very competitive.

This competition has driven up debt levels and banks were willing to lend three to four times' cash flow, " said Fenelon, who predicted that some highly leveraged, i. e.

debt laden companies will come under high pressure.

"If the current situation results in a global economic slowdown, profits will drop and some corporate will find themselves paying high levels of interest. In these circumstances you could expect to see some fire sales, " he said.

Fenelon added that, while people will question the fact that Riverdeep closed two leveraged deals within eight months, there were far riskier companies out there.

While Irish financiers remain relatively confident about the health of the local M&A market, some big international deals have been hit.

US investment bank Morgan Stanley withdrew the financing package it was offering to potential buyers of cable firm Insight Communications.

Meanwhile car giant Ford was so concerned that a buyer for its Jaguar and Land Rover brands would be unable to raise money that it offered to part-finance any deal itself.