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.

The matter was back in the High Court yesterday for directions on what type of scheme of arrangement was to be put in place for dealing with future possible investment and with creditors, among whom are major banks.

The court has heard the companies would not need external finance to keep going during the protection period and there have also been nine unsolicited queries expressing interest in either the group itself or assets within it.

Yesterday, Lyndon MacCann SC, counsel for the examiner, said they were proposing separate schemes of arrangement rather than a single scheme for the entire group.

Mr MacCann said under the assumption that the examiner receives an offer to invest in all the companies, it was proposed that each scheme of arrangement would be interdependent and that approval of each will be conditional on approval of all the schemes.

The creditors of each company will be furnished with documentation of investment proposals for all of the companies but they will only be allowed to vote for schemes relating to the companies which owe them money.

There was no objection yesterday to the examiner’s proposals from most of the creditors Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan confirmed.

The Thomas Read group employs more than 400 people and all but three of the companies are trading profitably. The directors believe they can survive as going concerns, the court has heard.

The largest secured creditor is ACC Bank, owed €15.2m, while the Revenue Commissioners are owed €2m; Ulster Bank is owed €5.6m; Allied Irish Bank, owed €4.6m; Diageo Ireland, owed €1.1m and Lombard Ireland is owed €1m.

The pub/restaurants are: The Bailey; Searsons; The Winding Stair; The Globe; Rí Rá; The Harbourmaster Bar; Pravda; Floridita; Dawson Lounge; Ron Black’s; Lincoln Inn; Bodega in Dun Laoghaire; two Thomas Reads in Parliament St and Smithfield respectively and eight bars at Dublin Airport.