Ballymore wrote €26m off its assets

BALLYMORE DEVELOPMENTS, part of Seán Mulryan’s property empire, wrote almost €26 million off the value of its assets last year, the latest figures show.

This, combined with expenses of €1.1 million and an interest bill of just over €500,000, left the company with a loss of €27.2 million for the 12 months ended March 31st, 2011. The comparable loss for the 12 months ended March 31st, 2010, was €2.3 million, but the company took no write-downs against its assets during that period. The write-down left its development properties valued at €2 million. Before the write-down they were valued at €27.6 million.

The properties are those acquired by the company for future development and those on which initial planning and development work has begun.

Ballymore Developments is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Isle of Man-incorporated Ballymore Ireland Property Group.

The ultimate parent is Ballymore Properties, an unlimited entity controlled by Mr Mulryan and based in the Republic. It had net liabilities of €36 million on March 31st last year. Assets, which included €5 million in cash, came to €7.7 million while it owed €43.8 million to its creditors.

Of the amount due to creditors, more than €16 million was owed to its banks while it owed €27 million to other group companies. The accounts state that the company depends for capital on money provided by the overall Ballymore group. It confirmed it will make the necessary cash available to the business and will not seek the repayment of any sums due to it for at least a year from the date on which the accounts were approved.

State agency Nama acquired a large part of Ballymore group’s bank debt.