Unsecured creditors lose €5m after receiver appointed to building firm

ONE of the mid-west’s largest building firms, Paddy Burke (Builders) Ltd went into receivership last year owing over €5 million to unsecured creditors, new filings show.

The north Clare company once employed 110 people.

Last year the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) appointed Eoin Ryan of Horwarth Bastow Charleton as receiver to the firm.

Now, a statement of affairs lodged by the director, Paddy Burke with the Companies’ Registration Office shows that €5m was owed to unsecured creditors.

The amount includes €973,057 in a director’s loan. The statement does not include a list of the unsecured creditors. The figures show that the company had properties and sites valued at €12.1m.

However, in accompanying receiver’s comments, Mr Ryan states that the value of the sites “appears in excess of the current market value”.

Mr Ryan states that the AIB has a fixed charge over some of the company’s sites and properties, but has not appointed a receiver.

The last filed accounts for Paddy Burke (Builders) Ltd to the end of August 2008 show that the firm had increased its turnover to €46m, recording pre-tax profits of €299,963.

However, the statement of affairs shows that the company owed €8.8m to Anglo Irish Bank and €2.4m to Allied Irish Bank.

The statement shows that preferential creditors are owed a total of €871,872, with €465,968 in redundancy claims, €220,135 to the Revenue Commissioners and €185,769 in insolvency claims.

The statement shows that €513,960 is owed by trade debtors and this includes amounts owed to the company for work at schools and hotels around the country.

However, in his accompanying statement, Mr Ryan says: “As the company has ceased to trade, this has left a number of construction projects incomplete and/or with claims of defect/default. As a result, the receiver does not expect to realise the full balance as per the statement of affairs.