A RECEIVER has been put in to another property in the Mansfield Group, the Finnstown Country House in Lucan, Co Dublin, at the behest of Bank of Scotland (Ireland).
Earlier this week, the bank appointed Martin Ferris, of Ferris Associates, to the Citywest complex in Dublin.
Finnstown Country House is owned by FTC Hotel, a company connected with businessman Jim Mansfield’s Mansfield Group. Mr Ferris has again been appointed as receiver and, as with Citywest, he has appointed Dalata, a hotel operating company headed by former Jurys Doyle chief executive Pat McCann, to run the hotel.
Mr Mansfield purchased Finnstown Country House and the property’s surrounding 45 acres in 2007 for an estimated €50 million from the Hickey family, with the aim of developing it as a boutique hotel. It currently employs approximately 55 people.
The move follows the appointment on Tuesday, by Bank of Scotland (Ireland), of a receiver to HSS Developments, the company behind Mr Mansfield’s substantial Citywest complex of hotels, golf courses, office buildings, conference centres and an education centre.
The appointment also includes the assets of Jeffel, a land-holding company.
It is thought that Mr Mansfield’s business owes Bank of Scotland (Ireland) about €180 million, and that loans from the bank have been distributed by HSS Developments across 22 subsidiary companies within the Citywest group.
The receiver is expected to seek to determine the complex inter-company loans within the group as part of his work.
Relations between the company and the bank broke down in recent months, after HSS failed to deliver on commitments provided to the bank to reduce its borrowings with promises of external investment.
It is understood that the bank is also concerned at the tens of millions of euro in debts run up with unsecured creditors for construction work carried out at Citywest in recent years, in particular on the complex’s €30 million convention centre, which was the subject of a planning row with the local authority.
In an attempt to save his businesses, Mr Mansfield is now thought to be preparing to apply to the High Court to appoint an examiner to the company to overturn the receiverships and to devise a survival plan. In line with Irish company law, the businessman has three days from the appointment of a receiver to apply to the court in a last-ditch attempt to stop the receivership.
If an application for examinership is to be made, it is thought to be unlikely to take place before the three-day deadline on Friday, given the length of time needed to produce an independent accountant’s report, which must show that the group has a reasonable prospect of survival.
While the examinership process has been brought into question following the failure last year of the Liam Carroll-controlled Zoe group to get court protection, success rates have improved significantly this year, particularly for companies which have solid trading operations.
