Ebeon wound up by High Court order

The High Court yesterday made an order for the winding-up of Ebeon Ltd, a Dublin-based technology company with estimated liabilities of £15 million (€19 million) and estimated assets of £12 million.

The winding-up petition was brought by Irish Telecommunications Investments plc (ITI), which claimed to be owed £8.8 million. Mr David Hughes, of Ernst and Young, was appointed liquidator.

The court heard Ebeon operated from a rented premises in the Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin and employed 100 people. It carried out software development work for blue chip companies in the field of e-commerce and had developed specific software for which a worldwide patent is currently pending.

Mr Justice Murphy noted the petitioner was ITI but it appeared the letter of demand for repayment came from Eircom. Mr John O'Donnell, for Mr Hughes, said Eircom was a related company.

Mr David Barnville, for ITI, said Mr Hughes was appointed provisional liquidator two weeks ago following concern about Ebeon's assets.

Mr O'Donnell said Mr Hughes's report disclosed the company had estimated liabilities in excess of £15 million. Assets were in the order of £12 million without taking into account that some debts might not be collectable in full. It also did not take into account the cost of the liquidation process. The result was a book value deficiency of £3.17 million. Included in the list of liabilities was the £8.8 million due to ITI, Mr O'Donnell added. There were other substantial creditors totalling almost £1.5 million and a bank overdraft of £2.195 million. The liability to the Revenue, who supported the petition, included a VAT bill for £241,754 while PAYE/PRSI amounted to £917,785.

In his report, Mr Hughes said Ebeon Ltd, formerly known as Trinity Group Holdings Ltd, was the parent of a number of Irish and overseas companies.

The assets of Trinity Commerce Ltd (formerly Koreman Ltd) and Trinity Design Co Ltd were transferred to Trinity Group Holdings in 1999 when Telecom Eireann Investment BV made its investment in the group. The subsidiaries are currently non-trading.

The largest shareholder was Telecom Eireann Investment BV with 6,339 issues shares out of a total of 12,462. Two directors, Mr Robert Booth and Mr Jonathan Mills, each had 1,803 shares. Other directors with issued shares include Mr Norman Crowley, 1,338; Mr Bill Donohue (also the managing director) 306; Mr Brian Bardon, 582; Mr Patrick Crawford, 116 and Mr Eamon Mulvihill,175. Four other directors named are Mr Declan Cantwell, Mr Garret Conaty, Mr Aidan Finnegan and Mr David Mulligan.

Mr Justice Murphy directed that two executive directors - Mr Booth and Mr Cantwell - along with Mr Donohue, should prepare the statements of affairs.