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What’s in the weekend papers?
20 April 2009
Developers’ personal guarantees lead to court action; Company behind Bewley’s development goes into receivership; Tulfarris golf resort re-opens; Rebel liquidator seeks to renew 10 pub licences; 4 Homes Superstores close Portlaoise outlet; Irish Dresden closes down; two more car dealerships collapse; bloodstock firm goes into voluntary liquidation.
PROPERTY
Walsh Maguire
Six investors are to take a multi-million euro legal action against two shareholders in collapsed construction firm Walsh Maguire. Liam Moran and Vincent Maguire are being sued in a personal capacity over guarantees they are alleged to have provided in relation to certain investments, a report in the Sunday Business Post says. The matter is due to come before the Commercial Court this Monday, April 20th.
The investors are seeking €2 million plus interest. According to court records they are Martin Harte, Mark McGrane, Peter McIlroy, Tom Kennedy Snr, Tom Kennedy and Tom Callanan. Moran and Maguire control Walsh Maguire, which went into liquidation last month with debts of more than €20 million. The company had a large number of public sector contracts.
HOSPITALITY & LEISURE
Bewley’s Cafe
The company behind Bewley’s Cafe on Westmoreland Street, Dublin has been placed in receivership by Allied Irish Banks (AIB), the Sunday Business Post reports. The receiver, Jim Hamilton, a partner with BDO Simpson Xavier, has been installed over Thedforde Trading to secure €20 million which is owed to the bank. Thedforde Trading is controlled by Simon Kelly, the son of Dublin property developer Paddy Kelly. Other members of the Kelly family also have shares in the company.
Thedforde bought the Bewley’s building from the Campbell Catering
Company in 2006. AIB has a charge over the firm’s assets dating back to
that time. According to company filings, Thedforde owed AIB €19.75 million at the end of May 2007. Shareholders also invested €5.9 million in the business through shareholders’ loans. Thedforde had been trying to redevelop the building into shops and a hotel and it recently received planning permission for part of its proposals. This is the latest in a series of companies controlled by the Kelly family to be seized by the banks.
Tulfarris Hotel and Golf Resort
The Tulfarris Hotel and Golf Resort in Wicklow, which went into receivership two months ago, is to re-open this week creating 50 new jobs. The resort went into receivership after Anglo Irish Bank seized the 200-acre development from companies controlled by developer Paddy Kelly. The Sunday Business Post reports that receiver Michael McAteer has recruited Hotel Asset Management Services (HAMS) to manage the property. HAMS specialises in operating troubled hotels on short-term contracts.
McAteer said a buyer was unlikely to be found in the current
economic climate. The only real option for getting value was to trade the
premises and generate revenue. Anglo appointed McAteer as receiver in
February after becoming concerned about the €25 million it had advanced to the development. The bank took the assets of two related companies, Comfort Hotel Holdings and Tulfarris Golf Services. McAteer said his decision was likely to set a trend for receivers operating businesses on behalf of financial institutions in the months ahead.
Rebel Bar
The liquidator of the Rebel Bar Company, which operates 18 pubs in Cork, is confident that the chain has a future. KPMG accountant Kieran Wallace is in talks with the Revenue Commissioners to re-open 10 of the pubs and save 125 jobs. If he gets agreement, Wallace plans to re-open the pubs in the coming weeks – staff have been placed on “temporary lay-off” pending the outcome of the negotiations with the Revenue, the Business Post reports.
The Rebel Bar Company went into provisional liquidation two weeks ago with debts of €2.6 million. Ten of the pubs were closed down due to licensing issues and Wallace is attempting to get the licences renewed with a view to opening them. Wallace was appointed provisional liquidator following a petition to the court by the company’s directors. A full hearing of the case is due in the High Court later this month.
RETAIL
4Home Superstores
Homeware and builders’ suppliers 4Home Superstores closed its Portlaoise outlet at the weekend with the loss of 17 jobs. According to the Irish Times the management cited “extremely challenging operating conditions”. The Reox Holding subsidiary is conducting a feasibility assessment of its remaining 11 stores, which have been particularly hard hit by the property market collapse and face extra competition with the
opening of Ikea in Dublin later this year.
A spokesman said they would decide on the viability of each store on
“a case by case basis”. The company will honour all deposits, product
orders and guarantees for Portlaoise. 4Home employs about 300 full-time
staff. It is understood that the longer-established stores in Munster –
with a significant Co-op element to their trading – are the best performers.
Irish Dresden
The creditors of Irish Dresden, the porcelain and ceramics company, have been summoned to a meeting to wind up the business and appoint a liquidator, the Sunday Business Post says. The Limerick company has been in business since 1962, producing porcelain dolls, ornaments and other collectibles. The meeting of creditors is due to take place later this month.
MOTORING
Newlands Renault and Magheracloone Motors
The fall-off in car sales continues to claim more victims. Two prominent dealerships have collapsed in the last week, according to the Sunday Business Post. Newlands Renault, which has been trading in Dublin since 1989, has summoned creditors to a meeting to wind up the holding company behind the dealership, Brickfield Motor Company. Directors proposed the appointment of Dublin accountant Ken Fennell as liquidator.
Newlands Renault employs 19 people at its Clondalkin showroom – its landlord is businessman Bill Cullen, although he doesn’t have any other involvement in the business.
Meanwhile National Irish Bank (NIB) has moved in on the assets of Citroën and Mitsubishi dealership, Magheracloone Motors. Acting on foot of a 2007 charge against the Carrickmacross company’s assets, NIB has installed a receiver over the firm.
Auto-Tech
The future of Auto-Tech, an Irish agent for JVC and Kenwood in-car
entertainment products, is in jeopardy, the Sunday Business Post reports. The directors of Balakan, the company behind Auto-Tech, have announced a creditors’ meeting in the coming weeks, during which the company will outline its financial position.
BLOODSTOCK
Sean Barrett Bloodstock Investments
A bloodstock company controlled by Fine Gael TD and former Minister Sean Barrett is being wound up, netting its shareholders a profit of more than €1.5 million, according to the Business Post. Sean Barrett Bloodstock Investments, a company used to manage a number of the politicians’ equestrian investments, is being wound up as a members’ voluntary liquidation, which means that all creditors will be paid in full.
According to a declaration of solvency lodged with the Companies Registration Office in Dublin prior to the liquidation, Bloodstock Investments has a surplus of assets of €1.5 million. This will be distributed among the firm’s shareholders. John Magnier, Coolmore Stud and Colm Moloney and Ciaran Conroy, of Glenvale Stud in Tipperary are listed as shareholders in the firm.
www.sbpost.ie
www.tribune.ie
www.sundaytimes.ie
www.irishtimes.com
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