Ballymore Properties has cut costs and debt, says spokesman

SEÁN MULRYAN’S property company Ballymore Properties has “reduced costs and reduced debts significantly” this year, according to a spokesman.

The company was responding to information contained in filings lodged at the Companies Registrations Office which showed that, at March 31st, 2009, the company had bank facilities of €1.8 billion which were due to be renewed in March this year.

Because it is an unlimited company, Ballymore does not publish full accounts. However, according to the auditor’s report by company auditors KPMG for accounts for the year ended March 31st, 2009, Ballymore had bank facilities of €1.8 billion which were due by March 2010 and €8 million which fall due on March 31st, 2011.

The auditor’s report notes that the ability of the group to continue as a going concern depended on the ability of the group to successfully repay, refinance or renew these bank facilities as well as to secure continuing support from the group’s bankers.

The auditor’s report also gives an indication of the estimated value of the principal assets under the control of the company in March 2009.

The “carrying value” of the company’s principal assets, comprising a development property and tangible fixed assets portfolio, was worth €2.4 billion, according to the report, although the auditors noted the “uncertainty associated with the assessment of the carrying value of property assets under current market conditions”.

Mr Mulryan is believed to be one of the first 10 developers to have transferred loans to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama). Loans related to Ballymore were transferred to Nama earlier this year as part of the first tranche of loans.

A spokesman for Ballymore Properties said “a lot had happened” since the latest accounts for Ballymore Properties.

“We are predominantly dependent on the London residential market and this continues to perform well,” he said, pointing out that London was poised to experience a strong bounce-back from the economic turmoil and would benefit particularly from the London Summer Olympics in 2012.

Ballymore has significant property interests in the UK, particularly in the London docklands area.

The UK arm of Ballymore Properties also had significant bank loans that were due for repayment at the end of March this year.

Kildare resident Mr Mulryan set up Ballymore Properties in 1982. The company’s interests extend from the Whitewater shopping centre in Newbridge, to a huge swathe of commercial development in the UK.

At the peak of the property boom, Ballymore was developing 18,000 homes and some four million square feet of commercial space in Britain alone, notably in London’s docklands.

It also had extensive interests in eastern Europe, Prague, Berlin and Bratislava and recently opened a flagship €450 million shopping centre in Bratislava.