SOLICITOR BRIAN O’Donnell and his wife Dr Mary Pat O’Donnell may face difficulties refinancing their 15 Westferry Circus office block in London next year “to enable orderly repayment of the whole loan balances”, ratings agency Fitch has warned.
It made its comments as part of a downgrade of notes related to a commercial mortgage backed security (CMBS) that includes the O’Donnells’ Canary Wharf building, which is let to global financial services company Morgan Stanley and was acquired by the duo’s Vico Capital in 2005 for about €207 million.
The rating downgrade was partly driven by “the uncertainty relating to the 2012 maturities” of the Westferry Circus loan and that of a City of London office building in which the O’Donnells are not involved.
“While asset performance remains stable and value recovery is underway in the prime UK commercial property sector, Fitch believes that the borrowers may still experience difficulties securing sufficient new debt to enable orderly repayment of the whole loan balances,” it said.
“This property is 100 per cent performing,” said a spokesman for the O’Donnells’ investment vehicle Vico Capital.
“Morgan Stanley is the tenant until 2036, with a break clause in 2026. Refinancing is over a year away. Vico is confident that this will be refinanced without any difficulty.”
The Westferry Circus loan is unrelated to a legal action taken by Bank of Ireland against the O’Donnells, Vico Road, Killiney, Co Dublin, seeking to recover €69.5 million arising from unpaid property loans and guarantees.That case was settled last month.
The O’Donnells had argued that the bank was acting unfairly and unreasonably in demanding repayment and said the negative publicity had hurt the values of their international property portfolio.
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