Mansfield 'expected' receiver from Nama

BUSINESSMAN JIM Mansfield said yesterday he had been expecting that the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) would appoint a receiver to some of his family’s assets.

Kieran Wallace of KPMG has been appointed to the Weston Aerodrome, six apartment blocks adjacent to the Citywest Hotel, and the Palmerstown Estate in Co Kildare.

Mr Mansfield said the businesses owed approximately €60 million, to Irish Nationwide, and had not been able to service their debts.

He said he was still working on a business plan but had been expecting the Nama move. It had not been a traumatic development, he said when asked.

“It will all be okay,” he added.

Mr Mansfield said he did not have an income from the three businesses, as they were intended as investments that would be developed and then sold.

“I have a little bit of an income to keep me going,” he said, but would not say where it was coming from.

Mr Wallace will now secure the assets and the associated incomes, and develop a future strategy for the businesses.

The six apartment buildings at Citywest are owned by HSS, the unlimited Mansfield company which was placed in liquidation earlier this year.

The Weston Aerodrome in Co Dublin is owned by another unlimited company, Fallowdale, which is owned by the same two Isle of Man companies as HSS.

Bridford, an unlimited company that owns the Palmerstown House golf course and estate in Co Kildare, the third asset over which Mr Wallace was appointed, is also owned by the two Isle of Man firms.

A creditors’ meeting held at Citywest Hotel earlier this year was told that the Mansfield family was not personally liable for the debts of HSS, despite it not having limited liability status, because of its ownership structure.

The meeting was told the HSS directors believed the company’s premises were worth €120 million in July 2010. The premises were the hotel, apartment blocks, two golf courses and a convention centre.

However, Bank of Scotland Ireland was owed €140 million and had a charge on most of the fixed assets.

Bank of Scotland Ireland originally appointed Martin Ferris as a receiver to HSS last July. Mr Ferris ran it as a going concern up until January, when the directors announced that they were placing HSS in liquidation.

Unsecured creditors, many of them small traders, were owed €37.7 million. According to the group’s statement of affairs produced for the January meeting, there would be only €6.4 million available for them and this was dependent on €120 million being raised by selling the premises.