A QUINN family company centrally involved in the taking of loans from Anglo Irish Bank in 2008 to buy a 15 per cent stake in the now nationalised bank has been listed for strike-off.
The unlimited company, Quinn Finance Holding, can be struck off at the discretion of the Companies Registration Office (CRO), or otherwise within one month.
If struck off, the company would be dissolved five days thereafter. Its assets would then become the property of Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, according to a spokesman for the CRO.
The company has been listed for strike-off because of its failure to file an auditor’s report and annual return for 2008 within the time required. Unlimited companies do not have to file annual accounts and their shareholders do not benefit from limited liability, but they do have to file an annual return and auditor’s report.
A Quinn family spokesman said the company was “a dormant holding company owned by the family and it is scheduled to file its financial statements at the end of February”.
In January 2008, the company registered a charge on the shares of Jersey-based Quinn Finance Holdings (Jersey) Ltd to the benefit of Anglo Irish Bank.
In July of 2008, the Quinn family bought a 15 per cent stake in Anglo as part of the process whereby it “unwound” an even greater stake held by way of contracts for difference (CFDs). The family has lost in excess of €1 billion due to its investments in Anglo, whether by way of CFDs or direct shareholdings – perhaps considerably more than that sum.
Quinn Finance Holding is the owner of subsidiary company Quinn Finance, which has a substantial stake in investments, including property, in central Europe, Russia and India, by way of another company, Stockholm-based Quinn Investments Sweden.
In the 2008 auditor’s report for Quinn Finance, filed in November last, PricewaterhouseCoopers included a notice which noted a “material uncertainty” that could affect the company’s ability to remain as a going concern. A spokesman for Quinn said this arose from the Anglo investment and was “not related to the performance of the family’s property portfolio, which continues to be satisfactory”.
The latest annual return for Quinn Finance Holding shows the company is owned in equal part by Colette, Ciara, Brenda, Aoife and Seán Quinn jnr.
The January 2008 charge included a clause inserted for the protection of Anglo Irish Bank capable of being “disapplied” by Anglo by way of written request to the Quinn family company.
The Financial Regulator is conducting an inquiry into Anglo’s granting of a loan to the Quinn family companies, to be used for the purchase of the bank’s shares.
At the time, the Quinn family had a shareholding by way of CFDs that was equal to 25 per cent or more of the bank’s shares. Ten significant customers of the bank were loaned money to buy up the shares not bought by the Quinn family. This process is also being investigated by the Financial Regulator and the Garda.
