Investors have expressed interest in Mr Binman waste group, court told

SIX INVESTORS have indicated an interest in investing in the Mr Binman waste collection group, a development which might help ensure its survival as a major employer in the Munster region, the High Court was told yesterday.

The group employs 331 people directly, while more than 200 others are reliant on its survival.

Bank of Scotland, the group’s main banker and largest creditor, strongly opposed the application to confirm examinership for the group.

Paul Sreenan SC, for the bank, said it would not provide any more funding, the group’s companies had no reasonable prospect of survival and the court should appoint a receiver immediately.

Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan will today conclude the hearing of the group’s petition for examinership. Its difficulties and insolvency were due to several factors, including the recession, increased competition, significant costs of expansion and the refusal of the bank to provide further financing, the court was told.

Bank of Scotland is the only creditor opposing examinership and among the largest creditors supporting the petition are Greenstar, owed €2.5 million, and a group of BES investors, owed €965,000.

Limerick County Council also supported the petition, principally on the grounds that the group was a major employer in the region.

The Revenue Commissioners, owed some €1.6 million, were adopting a “guardedly neutral” position towards examinership arising from its concerns that the group’s management had for more than a year used money collected and intended for the Revenue to fund the business, Alison Keirse, for the Revenue, said.

If the court appointed an examiner, all Revenue obligations must be met during the protection period, she added.

Earlier, John Gleeson SC, for the group, it was a family-run business that had energetically expanded to a point where it employed 331 people and had a turnover in 2010 of €34 million. The expansion since 2000 had been supported and funded by the bank, he added.

Mr Sreenan queried the reliability of the view of an independent accountant that the group had a realistic prospect of survival. In reaching that view, the accountant appeared to have relied on management’s cash flow projections and other figures but the bank had been given inconsistent figures by the same management, he said.

Rossa Fanning, for interim examiner William O’Riordan, provided the court with an interim report expressing the examiner’s view that the group had a reasonable prospect of survival.

The Mr Binman group of companies has 56,900 domestic and 5,500 commercial customers.