Clery’s buyer gets €350k in D2 deal

The business woman at the centre of the controversial closure of iconic Dublin store, Clery’s, last year made €350,000 in a property deal with her own firm.

The €350,000 received by Deirdre Foley from D2 Private for her 50% interest of a property at Harcourt Terrace is disclosed in new accounts that show mounting losses at D2 Private.

The accounts disclose that the firm recorded pre-tax losses of €775,037 in the 12 months to the end of December last and this followed the firm recording pre-tax losses of €467,409 in 2013.

In June of this year, Ms Foley emerged at the woman behind the purchase of Clery’s building that was part of a chain of events that culminated in the closure of the store with the loss, without warning, of 130 jobs.

The store was sold by US private equity firm, Gordon Brothers to Ms Foley’s and Cheyne Capital’s Natrium consortium for €29m. Natrium kept the property arm and flipped the operating business for €1m to Jim Brydie, an insolvency practitioner who promptly put the business into liquidation.

Natrium has since promised as many as 1,700 jobs during the re-design of the shut down store over a two year period- however, that has done nothing to dampen the disquiet around the circumstances around the store’s closure.

The new D2 Private accounts show that its accumulated profits decreased from €1.97m to €1.19m while the firm’s cash reduced from €4.1m to €3m.

On D2 Private’s going concern status, a note attached to the accounts states that “the directors have reviewed the projections, the assumptions contained therein and considerer the cash position of the company at year end and have concluded that the company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence until at least October 31 2016”.

On the €350,000 property sale by Ms Foley to D2 Private, a note states that D2 Private entered into a contract for the purchase of 50% interest in 20 Harcourt Terrace from Deirdre Foley in 2012 and completed in 2014 for €350,000 plus costs.