A NUMBER of companies owned by property developer Bernard McNamara have said they continue to operate as going concerns in part because of funding from their financial institutions.
The institutions involved include the now-nationalised Anglo Irish Bank.
Abridged accounts filed recently for Gendsong Ltd, which took out a fresh mortgage with Anglo earlier this year in relation to property on Hanover Quay, Dublin, say the recoverability of funds owed by group debtors has been brought into question by the downturn. “However, the directors believe the debtors will be recoverable.”
The abridged balance sheet of the company to the end of March 2008 showed debtors owed €5.2 million.
A bank loan of €22 million that existed at the previous year’s end was paid off during the year as a result of the new mortgage taken out. The value of work in progress fell to €3.8 million from €36.4 million. The accounts say the company has let 12 of 15 unsold apartments on a short-term basis and is looking for tenants for the other three.
During the year the company acted as agent for Mr McNamara in the sale of a site at Hanover Quay, according to the accounts. He was owed €204,000 by the company at year’s end, compared to €5.56 million a year earlier.
The company had transactions with a range of Mr McNamara’s other companies, including Castlehope Ltd, a company involved in the construction of offices and other buildings at Fairgreen, in Galway. That company’s abridged balance sheet for the year to the end of March 2008 shows debtors of €4.3 million. Mortgages this company had with the EBS some years ago are now fully satisfied.
The company some years ago sold a development at Fairgreen to bankers John Hughes of AIB and Tom Browne, formerly of Anglo Irish Bank, which currently earns a rental income of €1.2 million per annum from the Office of Public Works. The premises is used by the Revenue Commissioners, which took out additional space there earlier this year, a spokesman for the OPW said.
Mr Hughes is head of business banking with AIB Galway, while Mr Browne is a former director of Anglo. The men own the building by way of a partnership.
Shorelark Ltd, another company owned by Mr McNamara and which in turn is the immediate holding company for Castlehope, made a pretax loss of €1.58 million in the year to end March 2008, according to abridged accounts filed recently.
The company holds land but also leases a hotel at Lough Atalia, Co Galway. The accounts note that market conditions in the hospitality industry are difficult.
Of the €12.66 million due to creditors within a year, €8.4 million is owed to group companies, and €2.2 million to shareholders.
Anglo Irish Bank has a mortgage over the company’s lands and other interests at the Lough Atalia site, which Mr McNamara developed in conjunction with Jerry O’Reilly. The ultimate parent company of Mr McNamara’s group is Adenway. It is an unlimited firm and does not publish accounts.
