Individual marts owed up to €400,000 each by livestock exporter TLT

Some marts are owed between €300,000 and €400,000 for cattle bought by TLT International, the livestock exporter which went into receivership late last week.

Receiver Gearóid Costelloe of Grant Thornton said last night he hoped to be in a position to give an update on the extent of the liabilities later today.

The State's largest livestock exporter, based in Mullingar, went into receivership after HSBC pulled its credit lines from the business. It has now emerged that between 25 and 30 marts are owed money by TLT International, while between 20 and 25 farmers who sold directly to TLT or their agents are affected. Some farmers are owed up to €100,000 by the company. It is understood that the total liability to marts and farmers is between €3 million and €4 million.

The two main banks, HSBC and AIB, are owed about €3.75 million, so TLT's total liabilities in Ireland could exceed €7 million, assuming no other creditors come forward. The company is owned by Italian brothers Davide and Paolo Garavelli. They exported more than €30 million worth of livestock every year – about 30,000 cattle, some 60,000 sheep and a smaller number of pigs.

They have been critical of the move by HSBC to appoint a receiver.On Tuesday, the 25 staff employed by TLT were given their redundancy notices.