Nama to pursue Dunne in court for €100m

STATE ASSETS agency, Nama, is to pursue developer Seán Dunne in court for more than €100 million in personal guarantees he gave to cover property loans from Irish banks during the boom.

Last summer, Nama appointed receivers to a series of properties owned by Mr Dunne’s DCD group, including Hume House in Ballsbridge, Dublin, and Riverside IV, a block on the capital’s south quays occupied by commercial lawyers, Matheson Ormsby Prentice.

An agency spokesman confirmed yesterday that it had served papers on Mr Dunne demanding that he honour personal guarantees given as part of the security for bank loans related to some of these assets.

It has also lodged papers in the High Court and can seek summary judgment against the developer there if he does not repay the debt.

The precise figure sought by the agency is not known, but it is said to be well over €100 million. The loans due on the properties over which it has appointed receivers total €350 million. DCD owed the money to Bank of Ireland and Irish Nationwide.

Mr Dunne was one of the biggest players in the Republic’s property boom, and paid a record-breaking €379 million to Jurys Doyle for their hotels in Ballsbridge in 2005.

Nama has not taken control of that property, as a syndicate of lenders, led by British-owned Ulster Bank, provided the finance for that deal. The banks themselves took a majority stake in Ballsbridge in 2009.

Along with Hume House and Riverside, Nama controls development sites in Dublin – on North Wall Quay, Sandymount and Rathfarnham – which were part of the Dunne empire.

It also controls an office block on Herbert Street in the capital’s main business district and apartments on Brighton Road in the south Dublin suburb of Foxrock.

Mr Dunne has been spending most of his time in the US, but made a well-publicised return to Ireland over Christmas. Nama served papers on him during this period.

During the boom, along with the assets themselves, developers regularly gave banks personal guarantees as extra security against loans they took out to buy properties.

Nama is beginning to call in these guarantees from developers whose businesses and properties it has already placed in receivership.

In November, Nama obtained a €74 million judgment against Jim Mansfield, developer of the Citywest hotel and golf course complex in Saggart, Co Dublin.

It has also pursued Ray and Danny Grehan on foot of personal guarantees that they gave to their banks.