Twenty-seven people involved in a property partnership set up to purchase development lands in Co Offaly are being sued for €3.48 million at the Commercial Court. Ulster Bank Ireland Ltd claims it is owed €3.48 million arising from a €3.7 million loan in 2008 to the partnership to buy about 12 acres at Syngefield, Birr, for residential development.
In an affidavit for the bank, Joan Williams, an associate director of Global Restructuring Group – Recoveries, said the most recent valuation of the land valued it at between €500,000 and €1 million in a “fire sale”. She said the Birr Partnership, whose investors were mainly Co Cork-based, had claimed a facility letter linked to the 2008 loan agreement meant the bank could only pursue it for interest and not for the capital sum. The bank denies those claims and contends it has full recourse to all the partners for capital and interest.