Coillte pension fund stakes €20m claim

The trustees of Coillte’s pension plan have staked a claim to €20m worth of state-owned forestry following a secret settlement to their High Court dispute.

In mid-July, a €23m claim made by the pension fund was settled but no details of the agreement were publicly disclosed.

The pension fund, which affects 2,000 people, had claimed Coillte owed it €23m to fulfil obligations it made in 2000 and 2009.

The fund was in deficit and required a commitment for future investment.

The court was told that Coillte had promised to pay €3m in 2009 and €1.5m in cash each year afterwards to support the pension plan.

But it was also supposed to transfer €30m worth of assets. When the legal action was taken last year, only €7m had moved across.

Coillte had said the outstanding €23m relied on the sale of immature forests which needed Government approval. Under the law, Coillte must get a plan approved each year for all land it plans to sell or develop.

Although Coillte said its settlement was confidential, this week a charge was placed on a specific basket of the forestry company’s assets by the trustees of the pension fund.

According to the charge, it means the company cannot sell, lease or license the forests other than to thin them out, without the written approval of the trustees.

And all benefit accruing from the forests will have to go to the pension fund.

The charge said the terms were set out in a funding agreement between Coillte and the trustees signed on July 15, the day before the court heard the case was settled.The charge has been placed on 125 different property folios with a combined capitalised value of €20.1m.

A fifth of these are in Cork with lesser holdings in Tipperary, Waterford, Wicklow and Laois with small folios in a handful of other counties.

Coillte did not make a statement on the charge or the terms of the settlement.

Last year, the pension fund began its legal action against the semi-state company and it looked to register a €23m judgment against the firm.

It said a plan agreed with the Pensions Board had not been honoured.

Last month’s settlement was not disclosed, but it did require the consent of the shareholders of Coillte, the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

The court was told the legal action had brought things to a head and helped resolve the matter quickly.

The charge placed on the semi-state company is not without precedent in the sector.

In 2011, the members of the pension fund at Shannon Foynes Port Company placed a €900,000 charge against a parcel of development land it holds at Corcanree, off the Dock Road in Limerick.