SENIOR MANAGEMENT from the Dutch banking giant Rabobank which owns Irish lender ACCBank engaged with representatives of developer Liam Carroll before demanding in a surprise move that he repay loans of €131 million.
ACC’s threats of insolvency proceedings, which could have put six of Mr Carroll’s companies out of business, forced the developer to seek the protection of the High Court late last Friday. The move prevented the potential unravelling of his property empire under the six companies’ debts of €1.2 billion.
Representatives for Mr Carroll’s companies, whose debts include €1.1 billion in loans to eight banks, lobbied senior management in Dutch group Rabobank for leniency on repayments as he attempted to trade out of his difficulties following the collapse of the property market.
Mr Carroll had sought to agree a schedule of loan repayments, but the Dutch bank’s management team refused and demanded repayment.
It is understood that ACC then gave no advance warning before it issued demands late last month that Mr Carroll’s group repay €131 million in loans within 21 days. The demand period was due to lapse today, forcing Mr Carroll into a pre-emptive action last week.
ACCBank later threatened to take control of his companies over the unpaid debts.
A spokeswoman for ACC declined to comment as the case was before the courts.
Management at Rabobank, a global banking group with €402 billion of assets worldwide, are understood to be devoting a significant amount of their time and focus on resolving bad debts on the €6.5 billion loan book at ACC.
ACC will today resist the High Court application to appoint an examiner in the High Court to rescue a firm within the Fleming Group, the Cork development business owned by John Fleming.
ACC appointed a receiver to Mr Fleming’s firm, Tivway, which developed an office block in Sandyford, Co Dublin, to recover a loan of €21 million. The receiver later agreed to stand aside after the firm secured court protection.
The appointment of a receiver to Tivway could have a serious knock-on effect for the Fleming Group as inter-company guarantees could expose the overall business, which owes several hundred million euro to a number of banks.
Mr Carroll’s legal action last Friday stymies ACC’s attempts to recover its loans and blocks it from further action prior to a court hearing on July 27th to appoint an examiner to the six companies that make up the Zoe Group. The firms, which include two of his holdings companies, Vantive Holdings and the Jersey-based Morston Investments, secured court protection last Friday.
Mr Carroll, one of the country’s largest developers, is seeking the appointment of an examiner to devise a rescue plan in an attempt to save the companies and secure a moratorium from their debts.
