Supreme Court ruling likely to decide fate of Zoe group

THE Supreme Court will issue a ruling next Tuesday which could determine the fate of Liam Carroll’s heavily-indebted construction group, Zoe Developments.

Lawyers for ACC Bank, which is owed €136m by several Zoe companies, yesterday took a Supreme Court challenge against a decision by the High Court in August to allow the group file an unprecedented second application for examinership. It came after a similar petition had been rejected by both the High Court and Supreme Court earlier this summer.

However, the current appeal by the Dutch-owned bank represents just the first of several possible obstacles which Mr Carroll will have to overcome in a series of Supreme Court hearings over the next few weeks if he is to save his vast business empire which owes in excess of €1.3 billion to various banks.