Carroll in last-ditch bid to save property empire
EMBATTLED developer Liam Carroll will today make a dramatic last-ditch attempt to save his crumbling property empire.
He will make a fresh application to the courts for examinership on the basis of new figures for his threatened properties, the Irish Independent has learned.
Lawyers representing Mr Carroll will draw up a clause in the Companies Act that gives a company or companies three days from when a provisional liquidator has been appointed to re-apply to the courts for protection.
The move comes just three days after the Supreme Court refused to appoint an examiner to Carroll's 51-strong Zoe Group of companies after highlighting a series of "obvious problems" about the assumptions supporting his survival plan.
The three-judge Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Murray, criticised Mr Carroll's failure to exhibit the valuations, which were compiled by estate agents CBRE and Hooke and McDonald last December, to either the High Court or the Supreme Court.
Mr Carroll's lawyers said the valuations had not been given to the courts because they were "highly confidential".
But the court described his strategy for the companies' survival as neither "credible" nor "reasonably viable".
The next day the High Court, at the request of "stray creditor" ACC Bank, appointed Declan Taite of Dublin firm FGS as a provisional liquidator to the two main funding companies that lent down to the entire Zoe Group.
It is understood Mr Carroll -- who has more than 100 companies in his building empire -- has hired accountants KPMG to produce a new rescue plan he hopes will convince the courts that the companies in question -- Vantive Holdings and Jersey-based Morston Investments -- are viable.
When Justice Peter Kelly refused to appoint an examiner to six of his companies at High Court petition stage, he described the survival plan submitted by Mr Carroll's lawyers as "lacking in reality".
He described a projection by which the group would move from insolvency and a deficit of more than €1bn to a surplus of €290m after three years by independent accountant Fergal McGrath -- who formulated the original rescue plan -- as "a remarkable turnaround".
A report by Mr McGrath, of accountancy firm LMH Casey McGrath, which is also auditor to the companies, claimed the group had a reasonable prospect for survival.
Industry sources last night described the move as a last resort for Mr Carroll, who owes a range of banks €1.2bn.
"Unless some blow-you-over evidence is produced I wouldn't be that confident," one source told the Irish Independent.
"This is what should have been presented at the Supreme Court stage."
However, legal sources said that the court would be conscious of Section 6 of the Companies Act 1990, which allows for protection to be sought on the basis of new evidence.
Earlier this week the Irish Independent reported that a number of the banks owed €1.2bn by the builder agreed not to immediately appoint receivers to the two companies in question following a crisis meeting at Allied Irish Banks (AIB) on Wednesday.
It is understood that at the meeting, AIB -- Mr Carroll's biggest creditor -- and a number of other lenders agreed not to move against the companies until a full hearing of the application of the liquidator had taken place on September 9.
One source, who declined to be named, noted that the legislation governing the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) had yet to be finalised and could yet be altered to enable the body to resolve the situation.
The overall price NAMA will pay for the banks' development loans will be disclosed on September 16. The meeting, which was not attended by ACC Bank, was the first time Mr Carroll's creditors had met under the same roof since the Supreme Court ruling.
ACC Bank is owed €136m by Mr Carroll. The court heard on Wednesday that both Vantive and Morston had large deficits.
In the case of Vantive, the sum is €396m, while Morston has a deficit of €361m.
- Ailish O'Hora
