Ireland

State-owned Anglo Irish Bank is set to take control of department store Arnotts, The Irish Times reported. The bank is one of the backers of Arnotts' planned Northern Quarter development, which has been put on hold. The department store will come under the joint control of the nationalised bank and Ulster Bank. Anglo is believed to have told the EU of its intended move. Arnotts is said to have debts of more than €250 million. In February, Art Holdings, which owns Arnotts, was negotiating new banking facilities with the lenders.

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief Seán FitzPatrick, who owes creditors a total of €150 million and has assets of around €50 million, was in court as bankruptcy proceedings continued against him. Legal representatives for Anglo Irish Bank, which says it is owed up to €110 million, told the court it was seeking to have a “trustee in bankruptcy” appointed to the case. This trustee would replace a court-appointed official, Chris Lehane, who was assigned a fortnight ago to deal with Mr FitzPatrick’s assets and debts.

A host of Irish pubs collapsed over the past two years as the downturn ravaged the hospitality sector, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. In March 2009, the Thomas Read Group entered receivership after an investment plan for the chain of pubs fell through. Earlier this year, the Waterford-based Tweedy Group, one of the largest pub groups outside Dublin, collapsed into receivership when the High Court rejected a rescue deal for the group and final orders have been called on hundreds of smaller pubs across the country.

Premier Hotels Ltd, one of the subsidiaries of hotel management firm Prem Group, is facing liquidation after failing to agree a deal on a six-figure rent arrears bill with one of its landlords, The Irish Times reported. The company, which was a joint venture with developer Paddy Kelly and his family until they exited last year, has called a creditors’ meeting for early next month to appoint a liquidator. The company’s latest accounts only show figures for the year 2007 when it lost €245,000 before tax.

The Commercial Court has agreed to fast-track a landmark legal challenge by a developer against the National Assets Management Agency. The legal challenge by businessman Paddy McKillen and several of his companies presents a "very real threat" to the vital work of the Agency, the court heard on Monday, with the State arguing that the matter must be decided urgently, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. McKillen and 15 of his companies are seeking to prevent the transfer of €90 million worth of loans from Bank of Ireland to NAMA, claiming that the loans are not impaired.

Online reservation company 1800Hotels has continued to make “numerous” holiday bookings even after seeking bankruptcy protection last Tuesday, a leading US travel company has claimed to a Florida court, The Irish Times reported. Mark Travel, which handles reservations for major tour operators, said the firm’s Dublin-based parent company was trying to compel it to take these bookings without showing any ability to pay. The bankruptcy laws were supposed to act “as a shield, not a sword.

B3 Cable Solutions is to close after the firm's receivers, Deloitte, failed to secure a new owner for the company. The Longford firm which manufactures copper-based cable has been based in Aghafad for three decades and employed approximately 100 full and part-time staff. The firm had traded in a challenging environment in recent years and was placed into receivership earlier this month by its English owners, the Manchester-based B3 Cable Solutions. Deloitte’s had been engaged in an extensive process to sell the business and assets of the company as a going concern.

Record numbers of cash-strapped individuals and companies were pursued through the courts in the first half of the year as Irish creditors chased over €1 billion in debt, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Figures released by debt monitor Stubbs Gazette reveal that judgments against debtors rose a massive 416% in the first six months of the year, rising from €248 million in 2009 to over €1 billion in the first half of 2010. A judgment essentially changes the status of a debt into a Court demand, entitling the creditor to take enforcement proceedings to recover the debt.

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) and the State will ask the Commercial Court next Monday to fast-track the first legal challenge to the agency by businessman Paddy McKillen and 14 of his companies over the proposed transfer to Nama of €80 million of the companies’ loans, The Irish Times reported. Mr McKillen claims the €80 million credit facilities from Bank of Ireland are “fully performing”, not impaired, there is no default on repayments and transfer of the loans would have a “drastic and significantly detrimental” impact on his business and property rights.

Bailed-out Bank of Ireland won European Union regulatory approval on Thursday for its restructuring plan after pledging to sell assets and wind down some portfolios, Reuters reported. Ireland's biggest bank by market value received 3.5 billion euros ($4.45 billion) of capital injection and other state aid last year due to the credit crisis and the bursting of the Irish property boom. Under the restructuring scheme, the bank will reduce its presence in certain markets by selling assets as previously announced, the European Commission said.