HOUSE OF CARDS

THE board of housebuilding group, McInerney Holdings has resigned in the wake of shareholders voting against its proposal to wind down the company through voluntary liquidation.

Over 73% of McInerney’s shareholder base voted against liquidation at an extraordinary general meeting in Dublin yesterday.

The company wrote to shareholders, earlier this month, suggesting that winding down the company was the only option as it had “no meaningful assets of worth”, no bank facilities and no cash and combined debts of around €113m outstanding to three banks.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) had been selected as liquidator to the group’s holding company.

The board — led by chairman, Ned Sullivan — duly resigned after yesterday’s shareholder vote, after which a new board led by independent shareholder, David Nabarro was established.

Mr Nabarro — who bought into McInerney via a 21.5% stake in June — was co-opted onto the board along with his associates John Garratt and Kevin Lynch, and McInerney’s former managing director, Barry O’Connor.

Mr Nabarro recently opined that voting in favour of the liquidation process would be akin to turkeys voting for Christmas.

Speaking after yesterday’s meeting, John Garratt said that it remains the belief of the new board that McInerney does, actually, still hold some assets and does have some value.

He stressed that it was far too early to suggest what the future shape of the business might be, but said that the new directors are keen to talk to lenders about potential future funding possibilities.

The new directors will, he added, keep the McInerney name and keep the company’s Irish identity. They are hoping to move the company forward with an entirely new business plan.