THE LEGAL action between reclusive businessmen Paddy McKillen and the twin Barclay brothers over the ownership of the five-star Claridges, Connaught and Berkeley hotels in London starts today and is due to run for three weeks.

Mr McKillen is suing David and Frederick Barclay over their attempts to take control of Coroin, the company behind the hotels, in a case in the High Court in London that has drawn in Irish investor Derek Quinlan and Nama.

Mr McKillen owns 36 per cent of the shareholding in Coroin, while the Barclays have taken either ownership or control of the remaining 64 per cent shareholding over the past 15 months.

The brothers acquired the debt secured on Mr Quinlan’s 35 per cent stake in the hotels last year.

Last September they bought Coroin’s £660 million (€800 million) of debt from Nama through the company, Maybourne Finance.

Belfast-born Mr McKillen is claiming the Barclays conspired to seize control of the hotels and that Mr Quinlan’s 35 per cent stake should have been offered to him under a first-refusal clause in Coroin’s shareholders’ agreement.

Mr McKillen is also claiming that Nama’s sale of Coroin’s debt was in breach of the loan facility.

Both sides have won preliminary issues in pre-trial hearings.

The Barclays acquisition of Misland, the Cypriot company holding 25 per cent of the hotels, in January 2011 was ruled to be legal in a court ruling in December. Mr McKillen was unsuccessful in his appeal of this decision last month.

He won a separate ruling last month allowing him to argue in the case that Nama unlawfully transferred Coroin’s debt.

Mr McKillen was ordered to disclose to the court last month evidence that he had the financial resources to acquire Mr Quinlan’s stake should it be offered to him.

It emerged earlier this month that the family living expenses of Mr Quinlan, who is living in Putney, southwest London, have been paid for by the Barclays.

The first witnesses will be on Mr McKillen’s side, with the businessman, his long-time financial adviser Liam Cunningham and Mark Hennebry, a former asset manager at Coroin, giving evidence this week.

The Barclay brothers are not due to give evidence in the trial.

The directors representing the brothers on the board of Coroin – Richard Faber, Michael Seal and Rigel Mowatt – will appear later.

Nama head of asset management John Mulcahy, a director of the agency, and Paul Hennigan, a portfolio manager at Nama who handled the Coroin loans, are also scheduled to give evidence.

Mr Quinlan, his adviser Gerry Murphy and Peter Donnelly, a solicitor at Mr Quinlan’s former investment firm*, which bought the hotels in 2004 for investors, will give evidence in the trial,which is scheduled to run until April 4th.

*This article was edited on December 4th, 2012