Carroll ruling - Confidence challenged by uncertainty

WITHIN hours of the Supreme Court decision on Tuesday evening to withdraw court protection from companies in Liam Carroll’s Zoe Group the High Court — inevitably — appointed a provisional liquidator to two Zoe companies.

Both the Zoe entities are holding companies that distribute loans across the Zoe group. Dublin-based Vantive owes ACC €63.9 million while Jersey-based Morsten owes that bank €72.1 million. The six companies in the group owe eight banks €1.2 billion. These figures are all but incomprehensible for most of us and we will wonder at the great faith — and burden — bankers placed in one man. So, what happens next in this very Irish, this very expensive drama?

With a little over a month to go before the Dáil debates the NAMA legislation (September 16), the court heard opinions that the property market could not absorb such a large portfolio at once. So, in this pre-NAMA lacuna, the commercial property market is frozen.