Anglo ends agreement to move HQ to docklands

STATE-OWNED Anglo Irish Bank has formally ended its agreement to occupy the bank’s ill-fated proposed new headquarters in the north Dublin docklands.

The bank has chosen to withdraw from its pre-agreed option to lease the property, confirming expectations that Anglo would never occupy the building, once completed, following the bank’s nationalisation last year.

The Liam Carroll-built skeletal structure has become synonymous with the country’s defunct property development market.

Anglo’s chief executive Mike Aynsley is believed to have signed off on legal documents in recent days ending the bank’s lease option to occupy the building.

The property was already facing an uncertain future following the collapse of Mr Carroll’s Zoe Group, which owned the development, and a successful legal action by developer Seán Dunne quashing the planning on the land.

The Irish Times understands that Anglo’s management team may still consider relocating the bank from its head office on St Stephen’s Green to new premises in a bid to make a clean break from the bank’s chequered past.

This will be heavily dependent on whether the European Commission approves the bank’s proposals to split the bank into a good bank- bad bank operation and reinvent itself as a business lender after €28 billion in property loans are moved into the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).

The bank submitted a plan to the commission as a condition of its €4 billion capital injection from the Government showing that it will have a viable business after it pays back the State aid.

The EU has sought clarification from Anglo on several issues raised in the restructuring plan.

Construction on the proposed Anglo head office stopped after Mr Dunne won a High Court case quashing fast-track planning permission granted by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) to Mr Carroll’s company, North Quay Investments, to construct the building.

During Mr Carroll’s failed bid to secure court protection from his corporate debts last year, Anglo offered to loan a further €8 million to his Zoe Group to clad the shell of the building and a further €60 million to complete the project.

Mr Carroll’s firm had already drawn down €40 million from Anglo as of last June to finance the development of the property.

Anglo also owns Connaught House on Burlington Road in Dublin, where the bank’s private banking division is located.

In a separate development, Anglo’s company secretary Natasha Mercer has decided to leave the bank under the voluntary redundancy programme to spend more time with her young family.

Mr Aynsley had assigned Ms Mercer to retain her job as company secretary when he reshuffled Anglo’s management team and recruited five external executives over the final months of last year.

Asked about Ms Mercer’s departure, the bank released a statement from Mr Aynsley saying that he regretted her departure and that she had “worked tirelessly on behalf of Anglo throughout her time with the bank”.

He said that he hoped to have the opportunity to work with her again in future.