Hospitality entrepreneur Alan Clancy is opposing a High Court bankruptcy petition brought against him over an alleged debt of more than €278,000.
Businessman Sean McGowan wants Clancy to be adjudicated a bankrupt over the alleged non-payment of money under a lease agreement, between the men, relating to Oldcastle House Hotel in Co Meath.
Clancy denied the debt “in full” and intended to pursue a counterclaim by way of a separate lawsuit, the court heard on Monday.
He controls hospitality group NolaClan.
READ MORE
McGowan, of Grants Court, Greenogue Business Park, Rathcoole, Co Dublin, agreed to lease the Co Meath premises to Clancy, with an address at Hanover Quay, Dublin 2, in March 2017.
Will the State’s plan for the Carlton Cinema site revitalise O’Connell Street?
In his petition for bankruptcy against Clancy, McGovern said he was owed €160,000 in unpaid rent by Clancy, plus about €119,000 in late payment interest.
At Monday’s hearing, Keith Farry, for Clancy, told Judge Liam Kennedy his side was seeking to advance a defence to the bankruptcy summons. Counsel said his client was solvent and denied the debt alleged “in full”.
It is Clancy’s case he entered into an agreement with McGowan in October 2020 in respect of certain arrears and future rental and insurance payments. The alleged agreement arose in circumstances where restrictions on the hospitality sector brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic affected business at the hotel.
Farry said that under the agreement, in advance of a sale of the premises, Clancy would continue to operate the hotel and ready it for sale. Counsel said the agreement stipulated that if the hotel sold for more than €950,000 then his client would be entitled to 50 per cent of the uplift in property value.
The barrister said the hotel was sold for €1.3 million, but Clancy was not paid the 50 per cent uplift.
Michael Connolly, for McGowan, sought an adjournment to consider a replying affidavit recently filed by Clancy.
Connolly told the judge his side had received a letter stating Clancy’s intention to issue proceedings over a counterclaim against McGowan.
In written evidence, Clancy said his counterclaim, to be pursued in a separate lawsuit, would seek to recover the money allegedly owed to him following the sale of the hotel.
The judge put the matter back for a week.
