Property developer’s firms earn close to €1m in Clerys project

A firm owned by Deirdre Foley, a Dublin-based property developer with a 20 per cent stake in the Clerys redevelopment project, received a fee of €485,000 in relation to its work on the project last year, according to financial statements.

Recently filed accounts for Natrium, which took control of the department store in a controversial deal in 2015, show that FAM Acquisitions, a company owned by Ms Foley, was paid the fee.

A separate loan fee of €450,000 was due to be paid by Natrium to FAM Assets, another company connected to Ms Foley, the accounts state. FAM Assets loaned €1.8 million to Natrium, and the fee is connected to this loan. The overall debt remained outstanding at the end of 2016, the accounts say, although it was due to be paid back to Ms Foley in June of this year.

Accounts for 2016 were also filed recently for several other companies linked to the Clerys deal, including OCS Properties (OCSP), which owns the property, and parent company OCS Investment Holdings (OCSI), which Natrium purchased to effect the whole Clerys transaction.

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Redevelopment

The statements for OCSI show that its debts to QREA Ireland, a company that is helping finance the redevelopment, jumped from €18.8 million to more than €24 million over the course of the year.

OCSP’s accounts show that it valued its investment properties at €41 million at the end of 2016, a rise of €10 million over the previous year.

The accounts also indicate that Cheyne Capital, the UK-based fund that is the 80 per cent shareholder in the Clerys project, holds its stake in a tax efficient Icav structure based in Dublin.

Icavs (Irish Collective Asset Management Vehicle) were introdocued with the original intention of attracting offshore funds business to Dublin, but have since been utilised by owners of Irish property to avoid tax.