THE NATIONAL Asset Management Agency is taking a €270 million legal action against brothers Ray and Danny Grehan in the first case of its kind against developers in the pursuit of personal assets.
The State agency will seek to have proceedings – issued last Tuesday against the Grehans and two of their property partnerships – fast-tracked into the Commercial Court for summary judgment.
An application to have four sets of proceedings against the Grehans entered into the court’s list will be heard on Monday.
The proceedings mark an escalation of Nama’s recovery of loans from property developers and the first court application to pursue personal assets falling outside the direct reach of the agency.
The action is being taken to enable the agency to seize control of unencumbered assets – properties that have not been provided as security for any loans.
Nama is understood to be attempting to recoup the potential shortfall between the debt and the realisable value of the assets on which its loans are secured.
The cases are against the two Grehan brothers personally and against them practising as The Ashford Partnership, which owns land in Co Wicklow, and The St Lohman’s Partnership, which owns land in Lucan, Co Dublin.
The proceedings are being taken by National Asset Loan Management, the Nama company that acquired €72.3 billion in loans from five banks.
Personal guarantees provided by the Grehan brothers on their original loan agreements with the banks will enable Nama to pursue this latest course of legal action against the two developers.
Donal Rooney, a portfolio manager at the agency, has sworn an affidavit in the action.
Similar proceedings were issued last Thursday against property developer Jim Mansfield, but no date has been scheduled for an application to have this case listed.
Nama took control of properties owned by the Grehans in April with the appointment of receivers over loans of about €650 million.
The brothers challenged the appointment and Nama temporarily stood the receivers down to give them time to repay the loans before the receivers were reappointed within days. The agency later appointed an administrator to their UK property assets.
In June the Grehans failed in their challenge to Nama’s appointment of receivers to the Glenroyal Hotel in Maynooth, Co Kildare.
