McKillen sues over Maybourne Hotels debt deal
McKillen is also suing Maybourne Finance Ltd, the company that the Barclays used to acquire €800 million of the hotel group’s debt last month, according to an October 5 filing in London’s High Court.
“We are taking this action to protect our shareholding,” said Breda Keena, a spokeswoman for McKillen, in an e-mailed statement. She declined to comment further.
Maybourne Hotels owns the Berkeley, Claridge’s and Connaught luxury hotels in the British capital. Two Irish banks loaned €800 million to fund the acquisition of the hotels in 2005. Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency acquired the loans from the banks in June 2010, according to a statement by NAMA. It then sold them to the Barclays, the billionaire owners of London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. The Barclay brothers declined to comment through spokesman Max McGahan.
McKillen released a statement following the September 29 announcement of the Barclays’ loan purchase that he remained Maybourne’s largest shareholder with 36%.
The suit also names Misland (Cyprus) Investments Ltd, which was bought by the Barclay brothers in January and owns about 25% of the hotel group’s parent company Coroin Ltd. McKillen is also suing Coroin directors Richard Faber, Michael Seal and Rigel Mowatt as part of the case.
Faber, Seal and Mowatt couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
