THE BOARD of McInerney Holdings plc resigned yesterday after a proposal to put the troubled house-builder into liquidation was rejected by shareholders.

Rebel shareholder David Nabarro, who owns 21.45 per cent of the group, was co-opted on to McInerney’s board after an extraordinary general meeting in Dublin city centre yesterday.

Mr Nabarro succeeded in rallying enough support among shareholders to defeat the board’s motion to wind down the company through a voluntary liquidation.

Of the 50 per cent of shareholders who voted, some 73 per cent rejected the motion.

Addressing the egm, chairman Ned Sullivan said the plc “has run out of cash, has no assets of worth and no bank facilities”. Its main Irish businesses were in receivership, the British businesses had been sold as had its Club business in Spain. Its remaining Spanish businesses had been placed into insolvency procedures, he said.

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled against a rescue plan backed by US private equity fund Oaktree Capital. The Irish companies are now in receivership.

Mr Sullivan said the directors had exhausted “all possible efforts and options” to rescue the group.

“In this situation, it is not realistic to consider that there is any equity value for the shareholders,” Mr Sullivan said.

On the website savemcinerney.com, Mr Nabarro and two associates, John Garratt and Kevin Lynch, pledged to do their best to bring about an “equitable resolution of all stakeholders’ interests” upon assuming control of the board. The group also pledged to examine all actions taken by the board and senior management over the last five year and to investigate the “ruinous” borrowing relationship between McInerney and Anglo Irish Bank.