‘Misplaced’ minutes show €119m written off following IBRC sale of Siteserv

The amount written off following the sale of Siteserv by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) was €119 million, some €9 million more than previously estimated, according to minutes of a 2012 IBRC board meeting.

The Department of Finance claimed the minutes had been "misplaced" temporarily before publishing them on its website.

They detail how the IBRC board approved the proposal “as presented namely (i) to proceed with the sale of Siteserv plc for €48 million (with net proceeds arising for the bank of €44.3 million) with (ii) a write-off of the balance of facilities of €119 million following the sale, however noting that this was circa €10 million in excess of the current impairment provision”.

Denis O’Brien’s Millington bought Siteserv in March 2012. An unsuccessful bidder, Altrad, said soon afterwards that it had been willing to offer €60 million for the construction services firm.

The board meeting was held at Connaught House on the Burlington Road in Dublin on March 15th, 2012.

With respect to the Siteserv proposal, management outlined the sales process which had been managed by a sub-committee of the board of Siteserv and their advisers KPMG/Davys, and observed by Virgo Capital on behalf of the bank, the minutes state.

The board then agreed to proceed with the sale for €48 million.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin accused Minister for Finance Michael Noonan of misleading the Dáil in his replies on the sale of Siteserv and said he did not accept claims the IBRC minutes had been misplaced.

He received a letter of apology from Mr Noonan on Wednesday, in which he admitted to “inadvertently” providing incorrect information during his response to a Parliamentary Question on May 6th, 2015.

In it, Mr Noonan states he was originally informed his Department had not received IBRC board packs prior to the sale of Siteserv in March 2012.

Mistake

Mr Noonan said he became aware of the mistake when he was told by his officials on May 28th, 2015 that the documentation they found contained a schedule of board packs. On Thursday, the Department confirmed that the pack was received on March 22nd or 23rd, ahead of the meeting on March 28th.

Mr Noonan wrote: “It is important to note that the discovery of these records does not change the import of my statements in that it remains my officials’ belief that the Department first became aware of the Siteserv transaction after it was approved by the board of IBRC on March 15th, 2015.

Mr Martin claimed the department made a "deliberate attempt" to prevent this news from getting out.

Minister of State at the Department of Finance Simon Harris said Mr Noonan had no advance knowledge of the sale and “any effort to suggest that the Minister of Finance had prior knowledge of the sale of Siteserv isn’t factual”.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald described the Department of Finance as “passive” in monitoring the activities of the IBRC.