Construction firm left behind €33.1m liabilities after receivership

MID-WEST firm Keco Construction Ltd left behind gross liabilities of over €33.1 million when it went into receivership last year.

New documents lodged with the Companies Office also show that the company had net liabilities of €20.3m.

The company’s debts include €4.5m owed to around 240 trade creditors.

Yesterday, AIB-appointed receiver Tom Doheny, of Deloitte & Touche, said “it is highly, highly unlikely” that the trade creditors will receive any money from the receivership process after all of the company’s assets have been disposed of.

The list of creditors is contained in the company’s statement of affairs signed by the company’s two directors, Eugene Keane and Michael Cotter, and has only recently been lodged with the Companies Office.

The two established the company in 1998 and, at its height, employed 75 people. Mr Doheny said that “my strategy has been to avoid a firesale and that has been achieved and remains the strategy”.

Mr Doheny said that he has sold around 12 of Keco Construction’s homes, but around 40 at three locations remain unsold.

“In the current climate, it is getting more difficult to sell the homes,” he said

Mr Doheny said Keco Construction’s land bank contained around 50 acres of development land.

“There is nobody interested in purchasing sites at the moment and I haven’t even offered these sites for sale.”

A number of companies in the building industry were hit with large amounts of monies owed by Keco Construction, according to the figures.

Seven companies are owed between €150,000 and €200,000, with Galway-based Hodgins Architectural Facades Ltd owed €193,000; MAK Building Services of Lisdoonvarna owed €187,854; Clareco Scaffolding Ltd owed €170,946; Colm O’Rourke Ltd, based in Inagh, owed €188,946; Raymar Construction owed €155,000; Ennis Ironworks owed €154,765 and Whelan Limestone Quarries Ltd, which was wound up last December, is owed €158,202.

Companies owed between €100,000 and €150,000: Marian Petty Solicitors €146,299; Windows & Roofing Concepts Ltd €121,586; Headford-based Joyce & Sons €129,599; Ennis Lifts €119,458; Kieran O’Mahony, Steelfixing and Concrete €118,659 and James O’Sullivan Painting Contractor €112,301.

Keco Construction was owed €2.1m when it collapsed, with Curley Holdings owing €1.75m.

However, the company doesn’t expect to receive any of the monies owed by Curley Holdings and, overall, expects to realise just €127,150 of the €2.1m.

AIB and Ulster Bank are owed €19m as debenture holders, secured by a floating charge over the firm’s assets. The two banks are owed a further IR£7.4m secured by specific assets.

The company’s work in progress was valued at €5m while the amount owed by the company to the company’s two directors accounted for €1.62m

The figures show that the company owed €506,891 to preferential creditors that includes the Revenue and local authorities.

In a statement confirming the appointment of a receiver in February of last year, Keco Construction stated:

“The collapse of the housing market, the general decline in the construction industry and the failure of some of our major debtors to meet their commitments means that we can no longer trade.”