Finding out firms' interests a difficult exercise

LIQUIDATOR'S TASK:LIQUIDATOR Declan Taite faces a difficult task unravelling the various elements of that part of Liam Carroll's empire which he controls as a result of his appointment by the High Court yesterday.

Mr Carroll’s interests – and those of his bankers – are held in a series of interrelated companies, and insolvency practitioners say Mr Taite’s first job will be to establish which of them hold the various liabilities and assets for which he is now responsible.

The two companies to which he has been appointed, Vantive Holdings and Morston Holdings, are involved through subsidiaries in a series of mixed residential and commercial projects on the northside of Dublin’s docklands in the Sherriff Stree, East Road and Castleforbes Road area.

One of Mr Carroll’s showpiece developments, the Castleforbes Square apartment complex, is located in this area. The companies have other properties throughout Dublin and Morston holds shares in ferry operator Irish Continental Group.

The fact that Mr Taite has been appointed liquidator of Irish-registered Vantive and Jersey-based Morston means that he will be dealing with a number of other entities.

Documents lodged with the Companies’ Registration Office (CRO) show that, along with another Jersey-based vehicle, Stradbally Investments, Vantive is a shareholder in Peytor Developments and Villeer Developments.

In turn, Peytor is the sole shareholder in Parlez International and Carragh Enterprises. Along with this, Morston and Stradbally are the shareholders in Vantive.

The CRO records show that Vantive, Peytor, Villeer, Carragh and Parlez, all owe debts to a series of banks, which are secured against properties in the Castleforbes-Upper Sherriff Street area on the north side of Dublin’s docklands.

One of those banks is ACC, the Dutch-owned institution which had Mr Taite appointed yesterday. Its decision to seek the repayment of €136 million in loans, secured against those properties, sparked the court actions which brought Mr Carroll’s businesses to this point.

The other banks include AIB, Barclays, Bank of Ireland, Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank and KBC.

In theory, Mr Taite can sell the assets involved and distribute the proceeds to the creditors, including ACC and other banks.

However, most observers agree that selling the properties will be difficult in the current climate. They argue that ACC’s move is simply designed to get the other banks to buy it out.

One insolvency expert explained yesterday that one or even all the other banks could have the option of appointing their own receiver.

He argued that this would trump the liquidator’s appointment and return control of the situation to the other banks, who had backed previous efforts to have the companies placed under court protection.

The source pointed out that ACC also had this option, but chose to go the liquidation route.

“There was nothing really to be gained for ACC by having a liquidator appointed, so the only conclusion you can draw is that they just want out of the situation,” he said.