Anglo appoints receiver to Pierse and Kelly project

STATE-OWNED Anglo Irish Bank has appointed a receiver to Carrickmines Manor, a high-profile residential and commercial development in Dublin owned by Pierse Contracting and property developer Paddy Kelly.

Carrickmines Manor owes Anglo about €70 million, while both its shareholders, Pierse Contracting and Mr Kelly’s Redquartz Boundary (RQB), are in liquidation. The company developed the Carrickmines Manor residential and commercial complex in south Dublin.

Anglo has appointed Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton as receiver to the company on foot of debts secured by two mortgages.

Both Pierse Contracting and RQB guaranteed the company’s bank debts.

The High Court placed Pierse in liquidation last month and ordered an investigation of the company’s affairs. RQB went into liquidation last year.

Carrickmines Manor is named in an accountant’s report given to the High Court as one of 19 subsidiaries and related businesses whose debts Pierse has guaranteed for a total of €77.4 million.

Most of the debts are due to Anglo Irish. The Government was forced to nationalise the bank in early 2009.

Mr Kelly’s property empire unwound in 2008 and 2009 when banks began pursuing him through the courts for debts.

Meanwhile, Anglo is seeking to recruit a new panel of receivers and recently issued a notice inviting tenders. The bank has an existing contract with insolvency specialists, but that is up for renewal, and, as the State owns it, it is obliged to put it out to tender publicly.