Court relief for builder in €1bn debt

WITH €1 billion in debts and 650 jobs at stake, Cork developer Fleming Construction has been given breathing space after an examiner was appointed to one of its indebted subsidiaries.

The €22 million debt owed to ACC Bank by that subsidiary, Tivway, on the Sentinel Building in Sandyford, Dublin, may only be a fiftieth of Fleming’s overall debt. But for the moment at least, by escaping ACC’s receiver, it allows the parent Bandon-based group to seek ways to meet its debts while seeing what can be gained from the NAMA body.

Also, if ACC had been successful in securing the money owed to it, Tivway would only have been forced to hand over the property on its current value – which at current values, is worth between €500,000 and €1m. That would then have forced other banks owed money by Tivway to massively reduce the book value of loans it secured.