Senior Barclay man discussed leaking bonus information

A SENIOR Barclay brothers executive discussed with Sir David Barclay’s son leaking to the press the “bonuses worth millions” …

A SENIOR Barclay brothers executive discussed with Sir David Barclay’s son leaking to the press the “bonuses worth millions” to Nama personnel while the two parties were locked in negotiation about buying the debt of three landmark London hotels, a court heard yesterday.

In an email to Aidan Barclay, key executive Phil Peters claimed they needed to “increase the temperature” while they were negotiating with the Irish government agency about buying the £660 million debt of a company that owns iconic hotels Claridge’s, the Connaught and the Berkeley.

Sir David and Sir Fredrick Barclay owned a 25 per cent stake in Coroin, the company that owns the hotels, when they started negotiations in February last year with Nama about purchasing the debt.

High-profile Irish property investors Derek Quinlan and Patrick McKillen bought the hotels through Coroin in 2004.

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Nama took over holding company Coroin’s debt from Anglo Irish Bank following the property crisis in Ireland.

The two Irish investors fell out after Mr Quinlan agreed to sell his share of the company to the billionaire Barclay brothers to bring their stake to 64 per cent.

Ownership of the landmark hotels is now the subject of a legal dispute in London’s High Court after Mr McKillen claimed the Barclays unlawfully purchased Coroin’s debt in September last year and “prejudiced his rights as a director and shareholder” in the company.

It was revealed yesterday that Barclay brothers executive Mr Peters became frustrated with the “slow-moving” organisation in the initial negotiation last February.

Mr Peters’s job was to organise the finance with Barclays Capital so that the Barclay brothers could either purchase the debt of Coroin from Nama or refinance the company if the agency sold it to another party.

During questioning by Mr McKillen’s barrister Philip Marshall QC, Mr Peters said he wrote a series of aggressive emails to Nama executives because he was frustrated with their slow responses.

“Nama is not the quickest organisation and I was getting frustrated they were not giving us a quick enough answer.”

Mr Marshall then read an email from Mr Peters to Aidan Barclay where he discussed leaking the remuneration of Nama executives.

Mr Peters wrote: “AB, I think it is in the public interest to know what Nama executives are paid. They are personally incentivised with the potential to earn millions in bonuses. It is time to increase the temperature of the water.”

But Mr Peters said he did not know what the email was in reference to.

During examination, he admitted the Barclays set up Maybourne Finance Limited to purchase Coroin’s debt.

He said the purchase, which eventually went through in September last year, was to give the Barclays more control over the company.

But he denied the brothers had only planned to foreclose on the company pressuring Mr McKillen to sell his stake in Coroin. He said: “Foreclosure was just an option, as was a rights call or selling an asset foreclosure, which I thought was the worst option, was just one of many.”

The hearing continues.