WEEKEND DIGEST:Flamboyant property developer Johnny Ronan requested that Nama officials fly to London to meet him for discussions on Treasury Holdings' €2 billion in debts, Samantha McCaughren reports in the Sunday Business Post.
Ronan, whose high-flying lifestyle was a staple of media coverage during the boom, was concerned his trips to Dublin could generate negative publicity.
The suggestion about the London meetings was made by Ronan’s business partner, Richard Barrett, but the Nama staff member he was meeting felt London meetings would not be approved by the agency.
Details of the Treasury request were included in documents submitted as part of the developers challenge to Nama’s appointment of receivers to most of the company’s Irish assets.
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Former Quinn Group chief executive Liam McCaffrey received a payment of €1.4 million after he left the group in April last year, according to a report in the Sunday Independent.
The newspaper points out that Quinn Group made a pretax loss of €852 million in 2009, the last full year McCaffrey acted as Seán Quinn’s lieutenant. McCaffrey responded that jobs at the group rose from 300 to 5,000 during his 21-year employment.
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Eircom's lenders were told the company will need to invest €1 billion in a network overhaul if it is to see off competition from UPC and Vodafone, the Sunday Timesreports.
Paul Donovan, chief executive of the heavily indebted firm, which is currently up for sale, revealed the figure in a five-year business plan on which lenders were briefed last week.
With debts of €3.7 billion, Eircom will have to go through an examinership or administration process next month if a buyer is not found.
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