Lavin and Cullen to fight to retain control of hotel

Celebrity entrepreneurs Jackie Lavin and Bill Cullen will attempt to retain control of their jointly-owned five star property, the Muckross Park Hotel, in the High Court today.

A receiver was appointed to the heavily indebted hotel last month by Dutch lender ACC. On application to the court, the receiver was subsequently replaced by an interim examiner, thereby giving the couple a limited time in which to restructure the finances of the hotel.

At today’s hearing, the ACC is expected to object to the examinership on the grounds that the hotel, which employs 105 people, and a further 50 during the summer months, is in default on its €4.6m debt.

Mr Cullen and Ms Lavin bought the 68-bedroom hotel just outside Killarney in 1989. The couple extended and refurbished the property over a 10-year period, spending €10m on the works, which included a high-end spa which stocked Ms Lavin’s mineral make- up range, L by Jackie Lavin.

Declan Taite of RSM Farrell Grant Sparks was appointed receiver and manager to Muckross Park Hotel on March 13. Mr Cullen and Ms Lavin accused the ACC of “aggressive actions”, saying that the bank moved against the business without prior warning.

Two days later, on March 15, the couple went to the High Court and succeeded in having the receiver replaced by an interim examiner, Kieran McCarthy of Hughes Blake Chartered Accountants. During the hearing, Ms Lavin said that she was anxious to protect jobs at the hotel and to reassure couples who had booked weddings there. The hotel played host to 56 weddings last year, while 65 more are booked for this year and 25 for 2014.

The court heard that the hotel has hired a new manager who had implemented extensive cost-saving measures, and had succeeded in diversifying into a number of new areas. The court was also told that the couple had been promised a €4m investment from an unnamed source.

The recession has had a catastrophic impact on Mr Cullen’s business empire. Last October, Ulster Bank appointed a receiver to his last remaining car dealerships in Swords and Liffey Valley in Dublin. Renault also ended its long association with Cullen last year, while the Cullen and Lavin’s four-year association with TV3’s The Apprentice ended in 2011.

Forest, the rehabilitation clinic co-owned by Mr Cullen, went into receivership in Dec 2011, while separately, Danske Bank has an €8.2m judgement registered against him.