High Court reserves judgment in Walls case

The High Court has reserved judgment on a multi-million euro dispute between members of the family-owned PJ Walls property group regarding a share offer for two of the companies in the group.

The action was taken by Dr Patrick Joseph Walls against PJ Walls Holdings Ltd (Holdings).

It concluded yesterday before Mr Justice Smyth who said he would give judgment on November 5th.

The proceedings arise from an offer by Holdings on October 7th 2003 to acquire the shares of Walls Properties Limited (Properties) and a linked company, Thornhill Properties Limited. Holdings, Properties and Thornhill are all private companies controlled and owned by members of the Walls family.

The directors of Properties and of Thornhill are Liam and Paul Walls.

Dr Walls has claimed the price offered for Properties represents a substantial undervalue of the companies and he is seeking orders and declarations that Holdings is not entitled to acquire his shares.

He claims the share offer, which would result in an overall payment to him of some €1.32 million, put a valuation on both companies of €20.5 million when the true valuation was between €8.9 and €15 million more than that.

He was also concerned the payments were to be structured over a six-year period.

The principal asset of Properties is land and an office building at Northern Cross, Co Dublin. A 165-bed Hilton Hotel is being developed on the site and there is also outline planning permission for 225 apartments.

The defendants have rejected Dr Walls claims and have argued the €20.5 million offer for the shareholdings was "fair and reasonable" and was plainly in the overall interests of the immediate shareholders and of the group.

The offer had also been accepted by the majority of shareholders and none of the other shareholders supported Dr Walls's objections to the offer, the judge was told.