One More Thing: Arnold and Foley look set to take their Private battle public

A schism between the two low-profile founders of property company D2 Private could soon be played out in public.

David Arnold, one of the developers behind Central Park in Leopardstown, reckons he is owed money by his former business partner Deirdre Foley, who previously worked with Derek Quinlan.

The High Court – where you'll find more developers per square foot these days than the old Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway Races – beckons, unless they can sort it amicably in the next couple of months.

In Quinlanesque style, D2 tapped several of the Dublin glitterati for cash during the boom. Sean Fitzpatrick (the one and only) and former attorney general Dermot Gleeson were among its investors.

It claimed to have a £1.4 billion (€1.65 billion) portfolio of mainly British property assets at the height of the boom, but more recently it has been selling them off – in partnership with Nama – at a furious rate.

It has now sold off almost all of its UK portfolio, including some of the finest bricks and mortar to change hands in the City of London over the last two years.

Most recently it offloaded Marks & Spencer’s London headquarters, which D2 sold in August for about €240 million.

From a quick gawk at its file in the Companies Registration Office, Arnold, father of The Clinic actress Leigh Arnold, appears to have quit D2 quietly before the summer. He resigned as a director in May, and subsequent filings show Foley is now the 100 per cent shareholder of D2 Private.

Its last set of accounts, for the end of 2010, show shareholders’ funds of €3.8 million, so presumably they struck an agreement about a divvy up before Arnold hit the road.

He remained as an investor in some properties, however, and is reported to have held a 16 per cent stake in the M&S building, sold after he left.

Arnold last week lobbed in a summary judgment case against Foley, alleging he is owed a debt. She declined to comment yesterday, while Arnold couldn’t be reached for comment.

Private by name.... (you know the rest).