Clerys property company made €7.7m over flood damage

The company that sold Clerys department store this summer benefited from a €7.7 million gain over flood damage in 2013.

New accounts also suggest that Clerys was originally prepared for sale “as a going concern” prior to its sudden closure.

Financial accounts for OCS Properties, the entity that owns the Clerys building, show that the insurance claim relating to the flooding resulted in an insurance payout far higher than the destroyed assets were valued in the company’s books.

The figures cover the year to the end of January 2015, when Clerys was owned by Gordon Brothers, the US private equity group that sold it in controversial circumstances in June to a consortium led by developer Deirdre Foley.

Shut overnight

The store was shut overnight following the sale, while the operating company was liquidated and the staff sacked. The accounts for OCS, however, show that the property company was in rude financial health.

The former directors of OCS Properties say in the accounts that Gordon Brothers had received a “number of expressions of interest in the business as a going concern”.

They anticipated in a note dated June 11th that it would be “sold on this basis”.

However, the following day the business was closed down.

More than 50 concession holders who lost control of their takings of up to €3 million when Clerys operating company was liquidated have yet to get all their money back, according to Lorraine Sweeney, who owned the cafe in Clerys.

Possible payment

She said yesterday that she understands the liquidator,

Kieran Wallace

, has written to

Michael Lavelle

, the concession holders’ solicitor, over the possibility of payment.

“But so far, I have got nothing,” she said.

It is understood that Ms Foley’s Natrium company took possession of Clerys on July 31st, and that almost all fixtures have been stripped out of the building.

A liquidation sale of Clerys womenswear is being held this weekend in a building on Dominick Street in the north inner city.