Banks will not fund McInerney into the future

Updated: 22:15, Friday, 10 September 2010

A syndicate of three banks owed €114.5m by McInerney Homes has told the High Court it will not fund the company into the future.

1 of 1 McInerney Homes  Banks 'strongly opposing' the appointment of an examiner
McInerney Homes
Banks 'strongly opposing' the appointment of an examiner

Lawyers opposing a petition for the appointment of an examiner for Bank of Ireland, KBC and Anglo Irish Bank have said that the rescue plan for the company will not succeed and will not have its support.

Barrister Rossa Fanning said the matter should end there as an independent assessment said the support of the banks was crucial.

He said an examinership process would give the company court protection from creditors and would be the worst of both worlds for the banks.

Mr Fanning said the company's debt would be slashed and they would be tied involuntarily to the fortunes of a group of companies.

He argued that to do so on a non consensual basis was legally impossible.

Mr Fanning said the rights of a secured creditor should 'not be sacrificed on the altar of the preservation of an enterprise that is grossly insolvent.'

He maintained that the company's projections for the future were 'clearly flawed and entirely speculative.'

Lawyers for McInerney Homes have told the High Court that the implications of a possible collapse of the company go much further than its 100 employees.

The court has been urged to confirm the appointment of an examiner after hearing that the home building firm has a reasonable prospect of survival.

Senior Counsel John Hennessey said the management of the company was shocked and surprised when the banks decided to withdraw funding and cancel its overdraft last month.

He said the decision was made 'literally overnight' and may have been influenced by NAMA.

The company's loans have not yet been transferred to NAMA but could be in the coming months, he said.

Mr Hennessy told Mr Justice Frank Clarke that the 100-year-old company was 'an ideal candidate' for examinership.

He said there was a business plan in place with independent approval, and an investor willing to invest. He said it was a business waiting to take off again.

Mr Hennessy said that there was no sense that it had been mismanaged, it had not engaged in speculative development, had operated a conservative business model and re-invested profits over the years. However, the driver of the group's difficulty was the property crash.

The business plan presented to the court predicts zero growth in house prices for the first two years followed by 2%, 3% and 5% in the following three years.

The opposing banks have said that the rescue plan for the company will not succeed and will not have its support.

However, Mr Hennessy said it was difficult to see the commercial reasoning behind the banks' position.

He said the banks were proposing to recoup their money through receivership but would not come out with any more than they would under the company's rescue plan.

'The question now for the court is do you get rid of a 100-year-old business, destroy jobs and a business serving the community because the banks would prefer to get their money through receivership', he said.

The case before Mr Justice Frank Clarke will give his judgment on Monday.

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