Brendan Investments, the property investment firm of which television personality Eddie Hobbs is a director, has raised about €13 million from investors - well short of its target of €50 million.
The company had planned to raise a minimum of €10 million and a maximum of €250 million from investors but set a target of €50 million in the prospectus for its planned pan-European investment company. The firm will combine the €13 million equity raised with borrowings, creating a €50 million company that will invest in property in Germany, Portugal, the UK and Ireland.
Vincent Regan, managing director of Brendan Investments, said the investment climate had "significantly shifted" from the autumn of 2006 when it lodged its prospectus with Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority. "Sentiment has obviously changed but we will have a €50 million company," he said.
Almost 700 people have each invested an average of €19,000. Investors were asked to put up a minimum of €5,000. Mr Regan said the directors of the company - Mr Hobbs, accountant Hugh O'Neill, developer and architect Pat Owens and the firm's chairman Dermot Flanagan SC - were investing a combined total of more than €1 million.
He said the firm had raised the money, "despite the very testing climate currently prevailing", and had targeted consumers directly, bypassing financial advisers and brokers. He said it was "the first direct offer to the Irish public of a complex financial proposition, with a new brand and without an established distribution channel".
He said the company was assessing investments in offices and a nursing home in Germany, and in a 200-bedroom hotel and 160 apartments next to a sports resort in Portugal. He said the firm had reached an agreement with Radisson to run the hotel.
He said that some of the negative publicity received by Brendan Investments was "a bit unfair" as he believed some commentators did not compare its product with others available or "with the market norms". He said Brendan Investments was the investment product that has been "most open to scrutiny".
Mr Regan said it had succeeded by exceeding the minimum subscription level of €10 million that it had required. The company had extended its initial deadline of October 31st to November 30th because of "high levels of demand" from pension investors. Speaking earlier this week to The Irish Times about investments in general, Mr Hobbs described the market as being "toxic" and "in lockdown".
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