Ireland

AIB’s pretax losses could be as high as €3 billion when the bank releases its interim results this week – a key week for the European banking sector as a range of banks provide updates on impairment charges, capital strength and cost reduction programmes, The Irish Times reported. The extent of the decline in the bank’s pre-provision operating profits and its update on impairments to development loans that have not been transferred to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) are set to be under the spotlight on Wednesday.

The four-star Osprey Hotel and Spa in Naas has become the latest hospitality victim of the recession as failures in the sector continue to mount, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. AIB appointed a receiver over Naas Developments Limited, the company behind the hotel, last week. The Leinster area appears to be bearing the brunt of the hospitality downturn and the latest appointment brings to eight the number of hotels which have entered receivership in the area in recent months.

Almost six months to the day after the Residence club on Stephen's Green was seized by the banks, a new owner has taken over the reins at the private members' club, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Businesswoman Olivia Gaynor Long bought the club from receiver Jim Stafford last week and the business will now be run by a recently-formed company called Molana Ltd. The new firm is wholly owned by Long, and lists public relations consultant Eugene Long as one of its directors.

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.