Designer Mr Cuan Hanly is listed as the biggest creditor of his clothing company Cuan Hanly Design, which has been placed in liquidation with a deficit of €416,413. The high-profile fashion designer is listed among unsecured creditors as being owed €161,100 from the company.
The figure was challenged by a number of disgruntled creditors at a creditors' meeting in Dublin yesterday, according to one source who attended the meeting.
Mr Neil Hughes of Hughes & Associates, the company's nominee as liquidator, was accepted by the creditors. It is understood that a number of creditors nominated Mr James Butler, of Crann Lennon & Co, as an alternative, but this was defeated.
Mr Hughes said he could not comment on whether he could sell the company as a going concern.
Cuan Hanly Design, which closed two weeks ago, was situated at 1 Pudding Row in Dublin's Temple Bar. Temple Bar Properties, landlord for the company, has also emerged as a significant unsecured creditor. It is owed €27,000. Ulster Bank is owed €60,000, according to the directors' estimated statement of affairs.
Other creditors include a group called Closed which is owed €422,602, Paul Smith (€12,834), and Filippa K (€11,874). ByTheFactoryWall, a separate venture run by Mr Hanly which designs T-shirts, is owed €6,400.
Preferential creditors are owed €87,413 by the company, with the bulk of this owed to the Revenue. A total of €47,000 is owed in VAT, while €36,750 is owed in PAYE/PRSI. Employees' redundancy, minimum notice, holiday pay and arrears wages make up the remainder of preferential creditors. The company is listed as having a total deficit of €416,413.
The company has total assets of €66,468, with stocks accounting for €37,147, furniture and fittings accounting for €27,483 and office equipment accounting for €1,838, according to the directors' estimated statement of affairs.
But the statement of affairs estimates that just €7,861 of the assets may be realised and adds that the stock is subject to Retention of Title claims which the directors estimate to be in the region of €32,886. The figures do not include the cost of the liquidation.
Mr Hanly himself declined to comment in any detail on the liquidation of the company. "It's a really unfortunate situation and I just want to move on," he said.
