Rocca family accused of non-disclosure when selling chain to Linfen

The Rocca Tiles closure took a new twist yesterday when the chain's new owners accused its founders of not disclosing "serious matters" when they sold the group two years ago. Arthur Beesley reports.

The claims by Linfen Ltd were immediately denied by a spokesman for the Rocca family, who founded the business in 1974.

Rocca Tiles and its associate group TileBusters are in receivership after the closure of the nine outlets on March 4th.

The Rocca family sold the group to Linfen for €4.76 million in 2000 and reinvested €672,000 in the company to maintain a 20 per cent stake in it. When the shops closed, it emerged that the Rocca family had taken legal action against the purchasers alleging the oppression of minority shareholders' interests.

Linfen declined to comment until yesterday, when a press statement issued shortly before 5.30 p.m. claimed recent reports were "seriously inaccurate".

It said: "The fact that a number of serious matters were not disclosed by the vendors to Linfen Ltd at the time of the purchase has caused serious difficulties. As a result of this, the companies would have ceased trading long since had it not been for the fact that significant financial support in cash was provided by some of the shareholders since the purchase was made.

"This was done in an effort to keep the business trading in the interests of the employees, customers and suppliers."

Linfen is chaired by a British-based businessman, Mr Martin Simmons. The Irish Times was unable to contact Mr Simmons yesterday. The Rocca Tiles managing director Mr John Parnell said he had no further comment to make.

When asked whether the Roccas had failed to disclose "serious matters" at the time of the sale, their spokesman said: "That does not tally with the facts."

The purchase followed the completion of two due diligence reports, he said. "The Roccas were prepared to invest in the future performance of the company and were prepared to accept €1.84 million of the purchase price to be paid after the deal."

Linfen said it had initiated proceedings against the former owners of the company. It is understood an affidavit was lodged in the High Court on Thursday.

He said that questions Linfen asked after the purchase had been answered comprehensively last July in a report by BDO Simpson Xavier. Nothing further had been heard until this week.