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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Deutsche Bank has expressed an interest in purchasing the €457 million loans held by developer David Daly and his children with Allied Irish Banks, which were called in last month by the National Asset Management Agency, the High Court heard yesterday, the Irish Times reported. Moving the loans to Deutsche Bank would be “hugely” in the interest of the Dalys who, despite having initiated the talks with Deutsche Bank, are being excluded from the current negotiations by Nama, Michael Cush SC said.

Moody's on Tuesday night cut Ireland's credit rating to junk, the Irish Times reported. The ratings agency said it was downgrading the country's bond ratings by one notch to Ba1 from Baa3 with a negative outlook. Ireland joins Portugal and Greece in becoming the third euro zone country to have its ratings cut to junk. Portugal's rating was cut four levels to Ba2 just over a week ago.