McEvaddy airport company owes €40m

The Ulick and Des McEvaddy-controlled company that holds land at Dublin Airport that the businessmen are selling owes almost €40 million to its biggest creditor, new figures show.

The McEvaddy brothers and three other co-owners of 105 acres between the airport’s runways recently turned down a €75 million offer for the land from State company DAA, after putting it up for sale earlier this year.

Accounts show that DA Terminal 3 Ltd, the McEvaddy-controlled company that holds their share of the land, owed €39.66 million to creditors at the end of last year.

Most of this was due to US-based private investment firm Bain Capital, which loaned cash to the company that the McEvaddys had intended to use as a vehicle to finance the construction of a third airport terminal on the strategically located site.

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Neither Bain nor the McEvaddys’ spokesman would comment on whether the debt had been repaid. According to the accounts, it falls due this year.

Bain secured the debt against DA Terminal 3′s assets, specifically the McEvaddy’s share of the land earmarked for development at Dublin Airport.

The accounts also show that the company owed €11.16 million to the McEvaddy brothers themselves, who are its directors, but state that other creditors must be repaid before the businessmen can recoup this debt.

A spokesman for DA Terminal 3 confirmed that it was a “standard financing mechanism” that related to the Dublin Airport land.

The McEvaddys are well-known in Irish business, particularly for their aviation ventures, including Omega Air, which supplies mid-air refuelling services to the US military.

They had been planning to build a third terminal at Dublin Airport for several years, despite its owner, DAA, insisting that this was not needed.

Four years ago, Ulick McEvaddy told the Sunday Independent that their architects were putting the finishing touches to “our plans for terminal 3″ on the airport’s western campus.

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They originally recruited Dubai-based investor Tricap to finance the project. Company filings show that Bain took over as financial backer last year and that DA Terminal 3 – previously called Tri-Aviation Project Co Ltd – had repaid any liabilities to the Dubai firm.

Consequently, news that the McEvaddys, along with co-owners Seán Fox and Brendan and Orla O’Donoghue, wanted to sell the land came as a surprise.

Some reports put the likely price tag at €210 million. DAA, responsible for Dublin and Cork airports, offered a reported €75 million, which Ulick McEvaddy branded “derisory”.

Shortly after they put the land on the market, Kenny Jacobs, the State airport’s company’s chief executive, told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport that DAA was interested in the site, but would not pay “crazy money” money for it.

It is understood that the State company then got separate independent valuations of the site and offered a small premium to the higher estimate.

Mr Jacobs repeated his point about what DAA was willing to pay after it emerged last month that the McEvaddys and their co-owners had refused the €75 million offer.

The State company subsequently said it remained interested in the site, but only at the right price.

The McEvaddys maintain that there are other likely bidders for the site. DA Terminal 3′s spokesman said on Tuesday that “it is common knowledge that the land is on the open market and that there is keen interest in it”.