Belgian rival takes over Qualceram for €3.4m

BELGIAN-BASED multinational Ideal Standard will take over the operations of Irish rival Qualceram Shires for €3.4 million in a High Court-approved rescue deal.

Qualceram Shires was placed under High Court protection from its creditors last March. Ernst & Young partner David Hughes was appointed as examiner and charged with coming up with a rescue plan for the troubled business.

The group sells bathroom and toilet fittings, and its business was hit by the slump in new housebuilding.

The company was forced to seek court protection after it failed to renegotiate the terms of a lease with a major creditor and its bankers. Its shares were suspended from the Irish Stock Exchange. Yesterday, the High Court approved a deal under which Ideal Standard will effectively buy the share capital, operations and intellectual property of the group’s four Irish operating companies for €3.4 million.

The companies are Shires (Ireland), Quality Ceramics (Sales), Quality Ceramics (Arklow) and Quay Bathrooms. The deal means that a large number of the 109 jobs in these businesses, focused mainly on sales and marketing, will be saved. Ideal Standard also intends providing the business with working capital and capital investment.

Under the scheme of arrangement approved by the High Court yesterday, preferential and secured creditors will get 40 per cent of what they were owed at the time the group was placed in examinership. The group’s landlord and unsecured creditors will get 10 per cent of agreed claims, and contingent creditors will get a dividend of 5 per cent of what they were owed.

The parent, Qualceram Shires plc, and two other holding companies will be wound up. Last month it was reported that shareholders in the plc are unlikely to get any return from the firm’s liquidation.

British subsidiaries Qualceram Ltd and Shires Ltd are being wound up. Two Ernst Young partners in Britain, Robert Hunter Kelly and Jonathan Sumpton, were appointed as administrators to those businesses last March.Under that process, companies are either rescued or are wound up and the assets distributed to creditors.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Hughes welcomed the fact that the court had approved the scheme. “It is particularly rewarding in the current economic climate to have these four companies come out of the process and continue trading as going concerns, strengthened by the investment of an international player in the market. Great credit must go to the staff and management in the group who maintained their commitment to the companies.”

Ideal Standard Europe is based in Belgium and already has an operation in Ireland. The group also has independent businesses in the Americas. Here it is best-known for the Armitage Shanks brand of toilet and bathroom fittings.