Dunne consents to €164m judgment

A syndicate of banks that provided funds to companies of developer Sean Dunne towards acquiring two hotels in Ballsbridge for €400 million has secured €164.5 million summary judgment orders on consent against Mr Dunne over his personal guarantees of loans related to the purchase of Jury's Hotel.

A solicitor for Mr Dunne consented to judgment.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly today entered judgment in the sum of €164,586,493 at the Commercial Court in favour of Ulster Bank in its capacity as security trustee for the syndicate.

Mr Dunne is now based in the United States but had entered an appearance in the action via a Dublin-based law firm, Clerkin Lynch.

In purchasing the hotels, Mr Dunne had planned to build a €1.5 billion high-rise mixed development in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, with a 37-storey tower as the centrepiece. The plan was rejected in January 2009 by An Bord Pleanála and the hotels were reopened under the D4 brand.

The syndicate's case related to loans advanced from 2005 to DCD Builders Ltd, the parent company in the Dunne group, in connection with acquisition of Jury's Hotel. Mr Dunne provided personal guarantees as security for those loans.

Last January the bank, in its capacity as security trustee, demanded payment of €260 million from DCD. When that was not paid, the bank demanded payment from Mr Dunne in February of some €163 million, being the sum due under the Jury's guarantee on that date, plus interest.

The bank claimed Mr Dunne had no defence to the claim. While considerable time had been spent liaising with him in an effort to see whether his debt could be rescheduled or managed, that had not yielded results and there was no option but to issue the proceedings, the bank said.