MR TONY Leonard, who has been running Power Corporation for the past two years, and a venture capital group, are under stood to have agreed to acquire the company's Irish properties. This deal is part of a package involving the appointment of a receiver.
A spokeswoman for Power last night said she could make no comment. However, Mr Leonard who has been chairman and chief executive, would have had to resign before he could lodge a bid for the properties. The Power board agreed to the deal, sources say, because it protected the 32 Irish jobs and the Irish properties. The deal has also been approved by the syndicate of unsecured bank creditors who are owed £100 million (secured creditors banks are owed a further £90 million).
The sources have not indicated which venture capital group is involved or the consideration paid. Power owns about a dozen properties. These are located in Ireland, the US - which accounts for 85 per cent of the portfolio - and Britain.
The main Irish property is the Powerscourt Town Centre in Dublin. There are also three properties in Cork. These consist of the Queens Old Castle, Savoy Shopping Centre and the Courthouse Chambers. In Britain it has the Royal Exchange Shopping Centre in Manchester.
The US properties consist of the San Francisco Shopping Centre; The Rhinelander Mansion, Madison Avenue, New York; 345/347 Rodeo Drive, Los Angeles; an interest in the Ambassador Hotel site in Los Angeles; and interests in 256 Worth Avenue, Palm Beach, Florida.
While a receiver has not yet been appointed to Power Corporation, a decision to put it into receivership has been made and Mr Tom Grace of accountants Price Waterhouse, has been nominated for the post.
The sources stressed last night that an announcement of the receivership and the sale of the Irish properties was imminent.
Power has not produced accounts for two years and these revealed a pre tax loss of £5.6 million. More importantly, they showed net tangible assets of £9.2 million as at the end of September 1994.
But a downward revaluation of some of the properties would have put this into deficit, and informed sources said these could be as high as £70 million to £80 million. With that sort of deficit and with little prospects of getting a new investor, following the cancellation of its share listing four weeks ago, the group would have little option but to go into receivership.
