THE NATIONAL Asset Management Agency (Nama) has secured a court order for the winding up of two companies owned by brothers Ray and Danny Grehan, who are being pursued by the agency for some €260 million arising from their guarantees of loans made to their companies.
Mr Justice Roderick Murphy said yesterday he would grant orders for liquidation of Glenkerrin Properties Ltd and Glenroyal Leisure Ltd, which employ 75 people, amid concerns any delays might lead to a further haemorrhaging of assets.
Nama appointed receivers last May to Glenkerrin Properties, which operates bars, hotels and restaurants, and Glenroyal Leisure, operator of leisure and fitness centres, after the companies failed to make repayments to Nama. The Grehans initiated a challenge to the appointment of the receivers.
Ray and Danny Grehan, with addresses respectively at Bateman’s Row, Shoreditch, London, and Princes Park Parade, Hayes, Middlesex, had also opposed liquidation of the companies.
In an affidavit, Ray Grehan argued it was inappropriate for Nama to seek to wind up the companies. Liquidation would lead to the sale of the companies’ assets below value and there was “a lack of apparent concern for the future employment of the companies’ staff and the economic prospects of its trading partners”, he said.
It had been acknowledged by all parties the best means of achieving an advantageous sale of the Glenroyal Hotel and Leisure Centre was to maintain those businesses as a going concern, he added. The leisure centre has a membership of 3,600 people and turnover of €1.6 million per year.
Paul Gallagher SC, for Nama, argued the companies were “hopelessly insolvent” and it was in the interests of creditors that a liquidator be appointed. There was a suggestion that Nama, because it is owned by the taxpayer, should behave differently, counsel said. There was nothing in Nama’s actions to support the unfounded allegation it was not acting in the interest of the taxpayers but for some ulterior motive, he said.
Brian Higgins, whose company Lara Electrical is owed €46,107 for providing electrical goods and services, objected to the petition for liquidation. Mr Higgins said he was “a vulnerable creditor” and it was not in his interests for the companies to be wound up.
Mr Justice Murphy said he would appoint Declan Taite and Ann O’Dwyer as joint liquidators and also ordered the companies’ directors to file a statement of affairs within 21 days.
