Thomas Read examiner gets High Court approval for investments

THE examiner appointed to a company which owns 21 of Dublin’s best known pubs and restaurants has been given High Court approval for “schemes of arrangement” for possible investment on the basis they will be separate but interdependent for each of the 14 companies which operate the hostelries.

The companies, owned by Sharmane Ltd, the parent company of the Thomas Read Group, has combined debts of €26 million but has a reasonable prospect of survival, providing certain conditions are met, the High court had heard.

Court protection to allow the companies trade out of their difficulties was put in place last month, following the appointment of examiner Kieran McCarthy.