An interim examiner has been appointed to renewable energy firm Arena Capital Partners Ltd, the holding company in the Arena group, by the High Court.
The company’s principal debt is some €111.6 million to loan note holders, of which €12.4 million was due and owing as of September 11th last.
It is likely the loan note holders will get reduced payments under any survival scheme ultimately approved, Mr Justice Max Barrett was told by barrister John Lavelle, for the company, on Friday.
The company apologised to brokers acting for loan note holders and their clients over the impact on them of the company’s insolvency and for failure to adequately communicate with them while preparing since April last for what was expected to be a complex examinership.
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In court papers, it was stated, from September 2024, a “very significant” number of brokers made contact with the company seeking redemption of matured loan notes.
Payments of some €4.36 million were made between September and December 2024 but, by January last, the company’s board had determined it would not be able to implement a sale that would enable it repay all the debt owing under the loan notes.
It then stopped making payments on matured loan notes apart from payment of €2.58 million to a limited number of holders.
The company believed examinership was the best possible course of action to ensure the survival of the business as a going concern and that it would deliver the “best possible” return for creditors, it was stated.
The most recent management accounts for the company, as of June 2025, recorded a net asset deficit of €64.9 million.
The judge was satisfied, on foot of the evidence and submissions, to appoint Shane McCarthy, of KPMG Ireland, as interim examiner to the company.
He was satisfied the petition for that appointment met the requirements of the Companies Act, including the provision of evidence the company was unable to pay its debts as they fell due but had a reasonable prospect of survival once certain conditions were met.
He made various directions, including for advertisement of the petition, and returned the matter to October 7th.
The petition was grounded on an affidavit of Ian Greer, of Edenderry, Co Offaly, in his capacity as a director and chief executive of Arena Capital Partners. The other director is Barry Corcoran, of Oldtown, Co Dublin.
Arena Capital Partners, incorporated in 2014, with offices at Santry, Dublin, is the ultimate parent company. It owns 29 subsidiary companies and partially owns three subsidiary companies. None of the subsidiaries is involved in the examinership.
The company employs 19 people and the subsidiaries employ 92 staff.
Mr Greer said, as of the date of the petition, the company did not believe it was necessary to seek examinership for the subsidiary companies as they are cash flow solvent but it reserved its rights to make an application concerning those should the need arise.
The company was founded as an ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) company, with an initial focus on developing and operating renewable energy assets in Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe in the small to midscale wind turbine market.
Its business also included a social housing business, under which it acquired residential premises which were then leased to local authorities for social housing.
The group sold 109 turbines in 2021 for £60 million sterling after which it continued with its acquisition strategy and also entered the solar market.
Among the difficulties experienced by the group was its inability in the last 12-18 months to achieve a sale of its wind turbine assets similar to the 2021 transaction.
Its business strategy had been severely disrupted for reasons including interest rate increases which reduced the market appetite for large scale portfolios of renewable energy assets.
It was also affected by the collapse of the unregulated loan note market in Ireland, from which it had raised finance to fund the acquisition of renewable energy assets and the refinancing maturing loan notes.
Three parties to date have expressed interest in making an investment in the company, Mr Greer said.
