The High Court will decide tomorrow whether to appoint an examiner to four companies owned by Galway businessman John Sweeney.
The court wound up Black Shore Holdings, the holding company owned by Mr Sweeney, on the application of Esso Ireland, which was owed €12.3m.
However, four companies in the group involved in service stations, hotels and property are now seeking court protection to allow a survival plan to be devised.
The court heard they had banking difficulties due to over borrowing within the group.
However, Anglo Irish Bank, which is owed €55m in loans and guarantees, is opposing the application for examinership and says it wants to appoint a receiver to the companies.
Counsel for the bank Declan Murphy told the court that it had irretrievably lost trust in Mr Sweeney.
Mr Murphy said a survival plan for the companies was dependant on the ongoing support of the bank and that support was not forthcoming.
The application to wind up Black Shore was not opposed by Mr Sweeney.
Senior Counsel Michael Cush said it was a not a trading company as such, but offered management services to other companies in the group.
Black Shore owns a company that holds a one third investment in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin.
It also has interests in Marriot and Holiday Inn hotels, property and oil businesses.
The four companies now seeking court protection include the Sweeney Oil group and Slyne properties, which owns the Marriot Hotel and Spa in Galway, as well as a car park business.
The court was told that expressions of interest had been received from six potential investors whose names are being kept confidential for the moment.
The court was also told that the hotel business and the service stations were inherently profitable, while the spa and car park businesses were loss-making. Slyne employs 119 people at peak times.
The interim examiner believed they had a reasonable prospect of survival but key to that survival would be a re-structuring of bank debt.
In a sworn statement to the court, Mr Sweeney said he had devoted his whole life to the businesses and every resource he had had gone into the group.
Mr Sweeney added that he had borrowed personally and invested in the group and had taken a modest salary and lived a modest lifestyle.
He also said he had made costs savings over the past year-and-a-half and that staff had taken voluntary pay cuts and were willing to take further pay cuts to ensure the businesses survive.
Mr Justice McGovern will give his decision at 2pm tomorrow.
