Moritz Group companies win stay on €172m Nama debt

The Commercial Court has granted three companies in the Dublin-based Moritz Group a stay for three months on entry of judgment orders requiring it to repay more than €172m to Nama.

The agency had opposed the stay application, but the companies claimed that a stay would help save jobs within the group and allow them to realise and maximise the value of assets for their own benefit and fro that of Nama.

Nama had brought proceedings seeking summary judgment for €137.6m against Maplewood Developments, €95.3m against Moritz Holdings and €74.6m against Rumbold Builders over unpaid loans advanced by AIB, Bank of Ireland and Anglo Irish Bank, now Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.

Nama acquired the loans on dates from October to December 2010.

The companies separately owe some €280m to Ulster Bank.

This week, Mr Justice Peter Charelton was told the companies were consenting to summary judgment for €70m in the case of Maplewood, €27.8m for Moritz Holdings and €74.6m for Rumbold.

Nama’s application for judgment for the balance of the monies sought, some €135m, will be decided later following a full hearing of the agency’s claim.

At the Commercial Court yesterday, Mr Justice Peter Charleton granted the companies a stay until Jun 28 on entry of judgment for the €172m sum.

Based on the facts before him, the judge said he was satisfied that the group had tried to act in good faith in its dealings with Nama and made an arguable case for a stay.

He stressed that he did not accept the companies’ claim that Nama acted unreasonably or outside its code of conduct in opposing the stay.