Bannatyne makes €136m final offer to buy out Anglo loans

Duncan Bannatyne, the Scottish entrepreneur and star of BBC's Dragons' Den , has said he will withdraw a £111.5 million (€135.7 million) offer to buy out his borrowings of £115 million owed to the former Anglo Irish Bank if it is not accepted by its liquidator by close of business today.

Mr Bannatyne told The Irish Times he had increased his offer for his loans from £102 million – or 95 pence in the pound – in January, to 97 pence in the pound or £111.5 million on February 6th, an increase of £9.5 million. He said he could not understand why the bank's special liquidator KPMG was not prepared to accept his new offer.

“The window is closing. I will not make this offer forever and I believe nobody will pay more.

"By close of business I will withdraw my offer if they won't take it. They are beating me up with money owed to the people of Ireland and not their own money."

Fitness chain
Mr Bannatyne's bid to buy out the debt of his fitness chain, Bannatyne Fitness, is backed by Royal Bank of Scotland and M&G Investments, an investment manager with £242 billion of assets.

The Scottish businessman said KPMG’s “remit is get the best price. Nobody will pay more than 97p in the pound for loans. It doesn’t seem sensible not to take our money.”

Mr Bannatyne said he had sent his most recent offer letter dated February 6th to Minister of Finance Michael Noonan and the Central Bank of Ireland, as well as KPMG. "My company has been making attempts to raise money to repay our debt to you at a level that is most advantageous to you," it said.

“We made an offer to you on the 17th December 2013 of £102.2m to be paid in cash on the 9th February 2014, you rejected that offer despite it being the highest offer you have received,” the letter which was written by Mr Bannatyne adds.

“I am now in a position to make you an offer of £0.97p in the pound and hereby offer you £11,521,012 payable on the 9th March 2014 and not subject to due diligence. This far exceeds any offer you have received subject to contract and I hope that in the interest of the Irish people, you accept this and not a lower offer from a third party,” the letter concludes.

Declined to comment
KPMG said all loans were "currently in a sales process" and declined to comment further. Mr Bannatyne Fitness's initial £180 million loan from Anglo in 2006 has been reduced by repayments to its current level of £115 million.