The National Asset Management Agency secured the appointment of administrators to the UK assets of Glenkerrin, the property development company owned by Ray and Danny Grehan, in the High Court in London today.
The court application was not contested by the two brothers.
Malcolm Brian Shierson and Martin Gilbert Ellis of accountants Grant Thornton UK were appointed administrators after Nama re-appointed statutory receivers over the Grehans' Irish operations last week.
The action in the Royal Courts of Justice, was taken by Bank of Ireland and supported by Anglo Irish Bank and Allied Irish Banks, on the instructions of Nama. The hearing lasted just 15 minutes and was not contested by the Grehans.
A spokesman for Nama said that the administrators had been appointed over all of Glenkerrin's assets in Britain after the appointment of an administrator to the Crowne Plaza hotel in Shoreditch, east London, last Friday.
The other British assets owned by Glenkerrin include the City Pride and Island Point sites in the London docklands near Canary Wharf, The Forge residential apartment block, which is also in the docklands, and the Arcadia Centre and Villiers House, a shopping centre in Ealing near Heathrow Airport in west London.
The Ealing centre has 40 to 50 shops and an annual rental income of £4.5 million (€5 million).
Last week, one of Glenkerrin's assets in London – the Crowne Plaza hotel in Shoreditch in London – was taken over by NAMA, but today's order covers a shopping centre in Ealing, along with an apartment block and an undeveloped site in East London.
Mr Justice Briggs was told that the application was unopposed and Glenkerrin was not represented at the brief hearing in Court 52 in the Royal Courts of Justice.
"Peace has broken out, if there was a war," he said.
The appointment of an administrator to the UK assets held by an Irish property developer is the first such move by Nama, though there is speculation that it could become a more frequent occurrence in coming months as the agency tackles its UK loan book.
Nama appointed receivers to Glenkerrin's operations in Ireland last month after the company was unable to pay back about €650 million of loans to Nama, though it then stood them down briefly to offer it more time, only to reappoint them days later.
The Grehans have challenged Nama on the appointment of receivers to the two companies behind the Glenroyal Hotel and the adjoining leisure centre in Maynooth as they seek to retain control of the two properties.