Ireland

Former billionaire Sean Quinn has been declared bankrupt in a Dublin court after his bankruptcy declaration was annulled by a Belfast court, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Quinn, who famously claimed to have just £11,000 in the bank, failed to have his bankruptcy declared North of the Border, after the Irish Banking Resolution Corporation successfully argued that his centre of main interest was in Ireland. The bank claimed that a European Directive that applies in insolvency cases stipulates that a person’s centre of main interest has to be ascertainable to third parties, such as creditors.

A famed entrepreneur who was once rated Ireland's richest person was declared bankrupt yesterday as a bank pursues him for debts exceeding €2.1 billion ($3.3 billion), The New Zealand Herald reported. Lawyers for tycoon Sean Quinn withdrew his opposition to a Republic of Ireland bankruptcy order sought by the former Anglo Irish Bank, the reckless lender at the centre of Ireland's calamitous property crash.

Ireland's High Court declared Sean Quinn, once the country's richest men, bankrupt on Monday, preventing the former tycoon from returning to the corporate arena for at least five years and marking yet another twist in a complex legal battle over nearly 3 billion euros (2.4 billion pounds) in debts, Reuters reported. Quinn, 65, who turned a rural quarrying operation on his family farm into a 4 billion euro globe-spanning empire, has come to personify the rapid unravelling of Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" economy.

A property developer who owes Ireland's so-called bad bank some 300 million euros ($383 million) followed his similarly indebted brother in declaring himself bankrupt in Britain, insolvency papers showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Brothers Raymond and Danny Grehan, who bought a Dublin site in 2005 for a record 82 million euros per acre, were ordered by an Irish court to pay the state-run National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) 312 million and 308 million euros respectively.

Former tycoon Sean Quinn could be effectively barred from relaunching his business career after a Belfast court ruled that his bankruptcy should be dealt with in Dublin, The Press Association reported. The 65-year-old sought bankruptcy in Northern Ireland, where he could have started a fresh career after 12 months, but now faces a wait of up to 12 years in the Irish Republic. The businessman's multibillion-euro empire collapsed over the last two years on the back of massive stock market gambles on the share price of the former Anglo Irish Bank.

Ireland clearly needs further financial assistance on “non-market terms”, the chief economist with Citigroup, Willem Buiter, said during a visit to Dublin, the Irish Times reported. The former member of the monetary policy committee of the Bank of England said the most attractive option from Ireland’s point of view would be a reduction on the interest it pays on an outstanding €30 billion in promissory notes, issued mostly to deal with the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank.

Companies collapsed at a rate of more than 160 a month in the first 11 months of last year, with the rate of failure increasing 20 per cent on 2010, according to a business information provider, the Irish Times reported. From January to November, some 1,930 Irish companies failed, with almost three-quarters of the companies liquidated and most of the rest going into receivership. The failed companies owe a total of almost €1.2 billion in unpaid debt to unsecured creditors, Vision-net said. Businesses in the hotel and restaurant sector were the hardest hit.

The turmoil in the eurozone is posing a serious threat to Ireland’s efforts to stabilise its debt burden and return to healthy economic growth, according to the International Monetary Fund, the Financial Times reported. In its latest report on the Irish economy, the fund cut its forecast for economic growth in Ireland next year by almost half, and said that the downside risks to growth had increased.

Former billionaire Seán Quinn should have his Northern Ireland bankruptcy annulled because he did not make a full disclosure when he applied for it in November, it was claimed in the High Court in Belfast yesterday, the Irish Times reported. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (or IBRC – formerly Anglo Irish Bank), also claimed that Mr Quinn’s “centre of main interests” was not in Co Fermanagh as he had said when making his ex parte application in November, but rather was in Co Cavan.

Ireland has made “important progress” in consolidating its finances and implementing structural reforms, a new report from the European Commission said today, the Irish Times reported. The reforms pave the way for Ireland to receive the third instalment of European funding, worth €4.2 billion, in January. However, the comission warned that the country was facing a number of challenges, including the weakening global economic outlook, which could impact exports, a strong driver of growth in the economy.