Financial regulator Matthew Elderfield has repeated his call for further measures to be put in place to ensure bank balance sheets reflect underlying risks more accurately, the Irish Times reported. Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, this afternoon, Mr Elderfield said his office would require banks to ensure any potential impairment from future disposals "is recognised as fully and as early as possible". The regulator also backed continuing support for struggling mortgage holders and reform of bankruptcy laws.
Read more
A number of food and drink companies owed money by Superquinn have said they could be facing cash flow difficulties within days, RTÉ News reported. Receivers have been appointed to the retailer, though a number of directors are reported to be planning an injunction to stop the receivership. Hundreds of suppliers are owed money by Superquinn- with some of the amounts running into millions of euro. Musgrave - which wants to buy Superquinn from the receivers - is finalising plans for a scheme to help suppliers experiencing losses as a result of the receivership.
Read more
Receivers are to take control of housebuilder McInerney on behalf of three banks owed €113 million after the Supreme Court yesterday ruled against a rescue plan for the business backed by US private equity fund Oaktree Capital, the Irish Times reported. The ruling ends the process that began last August when the High Court appointed Bill O’Riordan of PricewaterhouseCoopers as examiner to five of the group’s Irish firms, and lifts the protection from creditors given to the business at that point.
Read more
The chief executive of Superquinn, Andrew Street, has resigned just two days after the company went into receivership and was sold to the Musgraves chain, RTÉ News reported. Receivers Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson of KPMG were appointed by Bank of Ireland, AIB and National Irish Band - and the company had around €400m in debt. In an email circulated by Mr Street this morning, he said the banks had selected this process to secure the maximum amount of the sale proceeds for themselves.
Read more
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said he will apply to the courts to recapitalise Irish Life & Permanent, despite shareholders voting down proposals to approve the recapitalisation at an extraordinary general meeting, the Irish Times reported. Mr Noonan said he had expected shareholders to vote against the proposals but that he had been instructed to recapitalise the company by the end of this month under the terms of the bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
Read more
The Director of Ireland's Small Firms Association (SFA), Patricia Callan, has condemned the Superquinn receivership as being "sharp practice," Finfacts reported. Following the appointment of joint receivers on Monday, the receivers agreed an overnight deal to sell Superquinn to the Cork-headquartered Musgrave Group. Callan commented: “We have been inundated with calls from small food and drink suppliers throughout the country, who are concerned for their future business viability, and the jobs of the staff they employ, as a result of the appointment of receivers to Superquinn.
Read more
A receiver has been appointed to one of Ireland's largest domestic retailers putting thousands of jobs into question and paving the way for a possible sale, the country's state broadcaster reported on Monday. Supermarket operator Superquinn, which employs around 2,800 people in 23 stores around the country, was put into receivership by a consortium of banks after building up debts of over 400 million euros ($561 million), Reuters reported on an RTÉ story.
Read more
Ireland's bailout package should be made more flexible to help the eurozone struggler recover faster from its crisis and ensure its return to debt markets, Europe's top economics official said in an opinion piece in an Irish newspaper, Reuters reported. In an article to be published in the Sunday Business Post, Olli Rehn called for the interest rates on Ireland's loans and the maturity of the debt to be lengthened. "Ireland provides hard evidence that the EU-IMF conditional financial support approach is working," Rehn, the EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, wrote.
Read more
The state is facing a legal costs bill estimated at up to €7 million following property investor Paddy McKillen’s successful legal challenge to the proposed acquisition by the National Assets Management Agency of about €1.4 billion in loans of his companies, the Irish Times reported. Mr McKillen secured a legal costs order from a seven-judge Supreme Court against Nama yesterday as it emerged the agency has now decided not to acquire the loans that were at the centre of High and Supreme Court proceedings lasting 12 days and involving huge costs.
Read more
The impact of the recession on families is reflected in cases brought to court, according to a new report, the Irish Times reported. The annual report of the Courts Service shows an increase in bankruptcies, orders for possession, judgments for recovery of debt and judgment mortgages. However, there has been a decline in cases involving companies, with a 9 per cent decrease in orders to wind up companies, a 6 per cent fall in applications to restrict directors and a 21 per cent drop in new cases admitted to the Commercial Court list in the High Court.
Read more