BILLIONAIRE QATARI investors offered financier Derek Quinlan a reduced price for his shares in a luxury London hotel group last year because he had “upset” the Qatari prime minister, a London court has been told.

The claim was made by property developer Paddy McKillen during cross-examination yesterday at the high court before Mr Justice David Richards.

Mr McKillen argues he was wrongly stopped from buying shares held by Mr Quinlan in Coroin, a company that owns Claridges, the Connaught and the Berkeley hotels.

Detailing talks with the Qataris, Mr McKillen said he and Mr Quinlan’s executive, Mr Gerry Murphy, had travelled to Doha in January 2011 for talks with investors there.

Mr Murphy had met with them first, but left the meeting “in a distressed state” because he had been told the Qataris intended to pay Mr Quinlan less than other shareholders in the group.

He believed the Qataris acted in bad faith, he said, and he had told Mr Murphy “not to worry and sit tight”, believing they would change their mind. “It was to get Mr Quinlan back for upsetting the prime minister in previous negotiations,” said the Belfast-born developer. The Qataris changed their minds within an hour, he said.

Mr Quinlan then reneged on the deal, Mr McKillen claimed, despite having signed up for it: “He got the deal he wanted and then he changed his mind for the sixth time,” he told the court.

Mr McKillen insisted did not have to tell fellow Coroin investors, including billionaire brothers Frederick and David Barclays, the Qataris had offered him a £5 million-a-year management contract.

That contract would have seen him in charge of the refurbishment of Claridges Hotel and overseeing the management of the other hotels, he said.

“That was for future work, not past work,” he said, adding that the other shareholders “were getting full value” for their interests and “what I did with my time was of no interest to them”.

Even though he had not told them of the £5 million contract, he said they were “aware that the Qataris preferred me to stay and run the project”. The Qataris eventually did not go ahead.

Mr Stephen Auld, SC, representing Mr Quinlan, disputed Mr McKillen’s track-record with hotels, saying he had previously been involved with the three-star Temple Bar Hotel in Dublin.

Mr McKillen said he had brought the refurbishment work on the Connaught “in on time and under budget”, unlike work in the Savoy which “ran three times over”.

He had led the Connaught project for nothing, he said, but he was not prepared to do the same for Claridges: “I am not going to do things for free,” he told Mr Auld.

He said all of the directors of Coroin wanted to remove Mr Quinlan because of “the reputational damage” his financial affairs were causing the company.

Meanwhile, a barrister for the National Assets Management Agency said it had warned for months last year that it wanted to get rid of €800m worth of debt held by Mr Quinlan on the hotels.

Barrister Robin Dicker, representing Nama, said the agency decided last year to offer three-month financing only in a bid to force directors to come to an agreement themselves. Nama, he said, had “become increasingly frustrated” with the delays in securing refinancing because it wanted to get the debt “off its balance sheet”, said Mr Dicker.

However, Mr McKillen argued three-month loans did not allow time for finance to be found elsewhere, arguing that six months, or preferably a year, was needed.

'COLOURFUL LANGUAGE': McKILLEN CRITICAL OF QUINLAN

Property developer Paddy McKillen claimed last year that financier Derek Quinlan was "sitting around on his fat arse, running up expensive hotel bills", the court was told.

Representing billionaire Frederick Barclay, Lord Grabiner QC said Mr McKillen had been "very abusive" about Mr Quinlan in a call in January or February 2011 to Mr Barclay.

"He [Mr Barclay] says that you then proceeded to be very abusive about Mr Quinlan and that you used a stream of four-lettered words about him and generally displayed a threatening manner."

Mr McKillen said that was "completely untrue", but he accepted that he had said "something like" that Mr Quinlan "sat around on his fat arse, running up expensive hotel bills".

He rejected charges that he had called billionaire Qatari investors, including the country's prime minister, "scum", saying his remark had been directed at Qataris dealt with earlier in talks to find investment.

"There were three different Qatari interests. The recent discussions had been with the prime minister, that is a completely different entity," he said.

Mr McKillen did not contest the accuracy of the text messages collated by Gerry Murphy, who works with Mr Quinlan, although the full contents were not read out.

"They are definitely from me. I would like to apologise to you and the court for the colourful language," he told Mr Justice David Richards.

"There is no apology needed," Mr Justice Richards replied.

Questioned by Stephen Auld, QC, for Mr Quinlan, Mr McKillen agreed that he owned a chateau in the south of France, along with vineyards.

In addition, he accepted that he owned substantial properties in Argentina, Vietnam and Tokyo, along with a number of homes in Cap Ferrat in the south of France.

However, he denied owning one in New York, saying, 'I do not know of the New York one yet."

He acknowledged that he had a house in Eaton Place in London's Belgravia district.

"You have done your homework – yes, I have," Mr McKillen said, acknowledging also that he had a share in Eurojet, a private executive jet company.

Mr Auld said: "And I think your principal business interests are spread throughout the world in that way, are they? You have a very international lifestyle, do you not?"

Seeing Mr McKillen nod, Mr Auld went on: "Mr McKillen, the answer is yes, is it not?"

He replied: "If you feel so."