Proceeds from 103 Tyrrelstown houses for fund and developer

The cash generated by the sale of 103 houses in Tyrrelstown in west Dublin will be split between a Goldman Sachs fund and a company linked to the property developer Twinlite.

Rick Larkin, a director of Twinlite, also confirmed that his family is the beneficial owners of European Property Fund (EPF), the company that owns the houses and took the decision to sell them and ask the residents to leave properties including houses on Cruise Park Drive.

A meeting of residents affected took place last night, with local politicians being told of fears over the difficulties they will face finding new accommodation in the area.

Evicted

Mr Larkin was speaking following a report in the

Sunday Business Post

at the weekend that said some Tyrrelstown residents are being evicted in the wake of an agreement between Twinlite and Beltany Property Finance, a Goldman company to which Twinlite owes money secured on the houses.

Goldman bought the Twinlite loans in 2014 from Ulster Bank, which originally lent the cash to build the houses. Mr Larkin denied the recent decision to sell the houses and ask tenants to vacate was taken as part of an agreement with Beltany.

When asked, however, if Beltany would receive the cash raised from the sale of the Tyrrelstown houses, he said the Goldman fund would receive the money, but “probably not all of it”.

Mr Larkin said there would probably also be “some equity” for Twinlite, and it might also receive some payment after the Beltany loans are paid off.

The developer insisted on RTÉ Radio yesterday that there were “no backroom deals” with Beltany to sell the houses and evict the tenants.

Companies office records show, however, that on November 25th, 2015, a restructuring deal was completed between the Goldman fund, Twinlite, EPF, and several other parties. The deal was signed by Mr Larkin.

Immediately following this deal, the records show that Beltany released a number of charges – similar to mortgages – that it held over the Tyrrelstown houses that are being sold.

Mr Larkin told The Irish Times this restructuring was because it refinanced its loans with Goldman Sachs in November, which essentially means Goldman rolled over the loans and extended them.

He had earlier told RTÉ that Twinlite had sold the houses to EPF in 2008, and that Twinlite was acting as manager for EPF.

When asked to confirm that the Larkin family were also the ultimate owners of EPF – effectively, that they sold the Tyrrelstown houses to themselves – he confirmed this was the case.

When asked why he did not make the Larkins’ ownership of EPF clear in his statements yesterday, he said: “Nobody asked me the question until you did just now.”

Controversy

The proposed sale of the Tyrrelstown houses has sparked public controversy, due to a perception that the residents were being forced out of their homes to satisfy loans bought by a foreign so-called vulture fund, in this case Goldman’s Beltany.

Mr Larkin again stressed that this was not the case, and said EPF planned to sell them anyway, even before it did its refinancing deal with Beltany.

He also said, “we are seeking an investor to buy all of the houses together”.

If an institutional investor were to buy all of the houses, it is possible the buyer could elect to keep on the tenants.