A summary judgment application for €1.7 million against former AIB and Central Bank director Bernard Somers in relation to a loan that was secured on various assets, including his home in Foxrock, Dublin, has been struck out at the Commercial Court after the sides reached an agreement, The Irish Times reported. Launceston Property Finance DAC had brought the case arising from a demand issued on October 4th, 2017 for some €1.76 million allegedly outstanding on a €3.62 million loan but the matter was adjourned for talks.
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Aryzta, the troubled Irish-Swiss baked goods group, has been urged to halve the scale of a planned €800 million rights issue designed to pay down debt and fund the group through a major restructuring of its operations, The Irish Times reported. Cobas Asset Management, the Spanish group that is Aryzta’s largest single shareholder, said on Monday that it is requesting an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to reduce the money being raised to €400 million. Cobas owns almost 15 per cent of Aryzta’s voting stock.
The Irish Banking Culture Board being set up by lenders in the wake of the tracker mortgage scandal is a “self-regulatory” body that will not work unless the Central Bank, unions and consumer groups also have stakes, the Financial Services Union (FSU) has said, the Irish Times reported. “If the banks were serious about culture change, rather than setting up a self-regulatory body, they would support the FSU’s call for a stakeholder-led culture board on banking with the equal participation of management, the Central Bank, FSU and consumer groups,” said Gareth Murphy, the union’
Sean Dunne’s Irish bankruptcy has been extended by 12 years by the High Court over “wilful and deliberate” failure to co-operate with the trustee administering his bankruptcy, including hiding or not disclosing information about certain assets, The Irish Times reported. Ms Justice Caroline Costello also ruled that Mr Dunne must pay €7,000 monthly to his Irish bankruptcy trustee to increase the assets available for his creditors.
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Ulster Bank will give new complainants up until the end of the year to seek compensation from a scheme that was set up for companies whose businesses were impacted by being put into a controversial restructuring unit during the financial crisis, The Irish Times reported. The lender is currently issuing a follow-up letter to about 2,000 Irish customers who were put into the group’s now-defunct global restructuring group (GRG), informing them that they have until December 31st to file a complaint about their treatment in the division.
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A push by Ireland’s richest man to refinance his heavily indebted Caribbean telecoms company has hit a wall after big investors rejected his bid to postpone repaying $3bn in bonds, the Financial Times reported. Denis O’Brien’s effort to buy more time for Digicel to repay the debt comes at a critical time for the company, amid anxiety about a possible default on a $2bn bond due in 2020. Now bondholders have dismissed Mr O’Brien’s proposal to extend by two years this debt and a $1bn 2022 note, saying the terms he has offered were “unacceptable”.
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Cardboard box-maker Smurfit Kappa has decided to deconsolidate its troubled Venezuelan operations from its balance sheet, after losing control of the unit to the local government, which will result in the writedown of its €60 million of net assets, The Irish Times reported. The move comes a month after the Caracas government decided to seize Smurfit Kappa Carton de Venezuela (SKCV) for 90 days amid complaints about prices that the company was charging for its products in an alleged abuse of its dominant market position – at a time when the country is grappling with hyperinflation.
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The liquidators of the former Anglo Irish Bank claim a US legal action by businessman Paddy McKillen over his “Maple 10” loan is an attempt to frustrate their work. Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson, the liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, claim the action taken by Mr McKillen and his partner Tony Leonard in July is an attempt to “end-run IBRC’s properly commenced recovery action in Ireland” through a “poorly disguised” adversary proceeding, The Irish Times reported.
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Ten years on from the financial tumult that led to the government of the day having to guarantee the viability of the State’s banks in an historic and unprecedented move, we look at the events of September 2008. Each day this month, we will recall some of the stories that pointed to the dramatic unravelling of the global banking system, The Irish Times reported.
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The High Court has granted a temporary injunction preventing an Irish registered aviation company linked to a controversial Russian businessman from going into voluntary liquidation, The Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Michael Quinn made an interim injunction preventing the members of City Leasing DAC, which has registered address in Limerick from holding a meeting of its members, who were due to consider a resolution to wind up the company. The company is beneficially owned by Rashid Mursekayev, who has extensive interests in the aviation industry.
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