ACC receives less money than has been paid in fees: Cordil

ACC Bank has received lessmoney than what has been paid out in professional fees in the first phase of the receivership of Galway construction firm Cordil Construction, new documents show.

Thu, 23 Feb, 2012 - 00:00

Gordon Deegan

Last May, ACC appointed Aengus Burns of Grant Thornton as receiver to the building firm.

At the time, Cordil chief executive Gerry Dillon said he was “very disappointed” by ACC Bank’s decision stating that he felt “we had a viable company here with projects worth €27m to complete”.

Cordil was one of the largest school building firms in the country and had 13 live projects on its books when a receiver was appointed.

Now, in the first receiver’s extract from the receivership, it shows that €239,342 has been paid out in fees for legal and consultancy work along with the receiver’s fees.

This compares with €178,293 being distributed to ACC Bank.

The extract shows that the company’s land and buildings had an estimated value of €2.9m with motor vehicles valued at €164,400. The extract confirms that the receiver disposed of an apartment worth €210,000 on July 7 last. The company also received €409,026 from the company’s debtors. The receiver also generated €75,800 from the disposal of fixed assets.

A breakdown of the fees paid out show that the receiver, Mr Burns, received €93,150 in fees; consultancy fees totalled €73,962 and legal fees totalled €72,230.

The period covered by the receiver’s extract goes from May 26 to Nov 25.

Last May, Mr Dillon said the company had a loan of €5.5m with ACC and that the bank had a floating charge over Cordil’s assets.

Mr Dillon said that Allied Irish Bank was the company’s other bank. He said: “AIB was willing to work with us, but their hands were tied because of the floating charge over the company.”

Mr Dillon said that Cordil was owed €3 to €4m “at least” by debtors. The company’s most recently filed accounts for 2009 show that the company’s loans and overdrafts at that time totalled €20.8m, while the firm’s auditors DHKN questioned the €20.6m value put on the company’s land-bank and finished developments due to there being no active market from which they could make an assessment.