Liquidator appointed to two of five construction group companies

A LIQUIDATOR was appointed yesterday by the High Court to two offive companies in the McInerney construction group.

It followed an announcement to the court on behalf of an interim examiner, appointed to the five last August, that survival proposals for the group would now only apply to two of its companies, McInerney Homes Ltd and McInerney Contracting Ltd, which are largely involved in house building.

The examiner, William O’Riordan, had last Sunday finalised an investment plan for these two companies which will be presented to a meeting of creditors tomorrow, Eoin McCullough, for the examiner, said.

Two of the other three companies, McInerney Construction (Holdings) Ltd, and McInerney Contracting Dublin Ltd, are not being included and court protection for them could be lifted, Mr McCullough said. These two companies were mainly involved in contracting out work and managing investments in subsidiaries, the court heard.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly appointed Mr O’Riordan as liquidator to those companies and ordered their directors, Enda Cunningham, Mark Shakespeare and John Crowley to file a statement of their affairs within 21 days to the court.

John Hennessy, for the companies, said protection could also be lifted for the fifth company, McInerney Holdings plc, but there was no need for a winding up order as this company’s circumstances had changed and it was now able to pay it debts.

It now had significant assets over liabilities, counsel said, and the lifting of court protection would mean it could continue on in business as before. The plc was essentially a company that managed borrowings, counsel said

Mr Hennessy said one of the plc’s principal assets is an investment in Spain which the company was actively in the process of disposing of and it would result in a significant inflow of funds to the plc. Even if this (disposal) does not happen, the investment itself allows the company to avail of a significant cash flow and it will be able to pay its debts, counsel said.

Rossa Fanning, for a syndicate of three creditor banks which have been opposed to the examinership throughout, said this was day 91 of the examinership process and the latest information, an affidavit from director Mark Shakespeare, did not explain why the position of the company had changed.

Mr Fanning said his clients, Anglo Irish Bank, KBC and Bank of Ireland, owed €116m by the McInerney group, were still implacably opposed to the examinership.

It appeared the new solvency of the plc had been “engineered” in what, Mr Fanning said, was a situation without precedent given that the company had been under court protection for 91 days.

Mr Hennessy, for the company, strongly rejected the “engineered” claim as unfounded. He said, before the examiner was appointed, the most important issue facing the plc was a €3.19m liability in the company pension scheme.

The directors had since suspended and later terminated payments into the scheme and that was the single most important event in changing the plc’s deficit into having a significant surplus of net assets, Mr Hennessy said.