Lynch family loses €25m AIB property loan liability case

BUSINESSMAN PHILIP Lynch, his wife Eileen and their four children, have lost their High Court case where they were contesting their liability for a €25 million property loan taken out in February 2007.

A summary judgment order against the family members may be made later this month, although the family may yet appeal. Mr Lynch (65) had no comment to make on yesterday’s ruling.

The family’s claim that the loan was “non-recourse” was its only defence in summary judgment proceedings taken earlier this year by AIB. Those proceedings were stayed pending the outcome of the case ruled on yesterday.

Mr Justice Michael Peart said it was the family’s “honest belief” in 2007 that AIB only had recourse to the lands in Kilbarry, Co Waterford, that were being bought with the loan. It was only when the 100 per cent, interest-only loan came up for renewal in early 2009 that the family realised the bank was of the view that they were all personally liable for the money.

The family bought the lands in a deal suggested to Mr Lynch by property developer Gerry Conlon, who was a 50 per cent partner in the loan and the property deal.

Mr Lynch’s children are Judith Whelan and Therese, Phillipa and Paul Lynch. The bank is also likely to seek a judgment order against Mr Conlon. Mr Lynch is the former chief executive of IAWS, which he developed from a struggling supplier of animal feed and fertiliser to a consumer foods business with a €1 billion turnover. It is now part of Aryzta.

After leaving IAWS, Mr Lynch transformed an associated co-op into investment business One51.

However, earlier this year he was removed as chief executive of that company. He had been under pressure at One51 over its poor financial performance, his €1.4 million annual salary and a collapse in share value.

Mr Conlon is a property developer whose loans have been moved to the Nama. The sale in 2006 of the 400-acre Millennium Park site in Naas, Co Kildare, – which he owned with another local developer Dermot O’Rourke – for €320 million was reportedly the most expensive land deal ever done in Ireland.

Mr Conlon is one of the so- called Maple Ten, who were given €451 million in loans by Anglo Irish Bank in July 2008 to buy a 10 per cent stake in the bank held by businessman Seán Quinn.

During the case taken by the Lynch family earlier this year and on which judgment was reserved, the court that heard Mr Conlan had loan exposure of some €226.6 million to AIB in late 2006, had €14.6 million cash on deposit and a net worth stated to be some €190 million.