This article is from page 10 of the 2011-08-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
THE fate of Clare’s oldest construction firm, McInerney Holdings, took another twist on Friday when the board of directors of the company that was set up by O’Callaghan’s Mills man Thomas McInerney in 1909 resigned after a proposal to put the troubled house-builder into liquidation was rejected by shareholders.
Last week, McInerney Homes, which represents the Irish divisions of the construction company, was placed in receivership after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal to a previous High Court decision that refused to approve a rescue plan for the firm that had been proposed by the directors.
Had the plan been adopted, US private equity firm Oaktree Capital had pledged to invest € 54m in it and a related firm in order to keep them going.
McInerney’s directors said afterwards they were disappointed at the ruling. They pointed out that it meant that a € 54 million investment – that would have saved 100 jobs and resulted in a € 2 million payment to trade creditors – could not now go ahead.
Rebel shareholder David Nabar- ro, who owns 21.45 per cent of the group, was co-opted on to McInerney’s board after an extraordinary general meeting in Dublin city centre on Thursday.
Mr Nabarro succeeded in rallying enough support among shareholders to defeat the board’s motion to wind down the company through a voluntary liquidation. Of the 50 per cent of shareholders who voted, some 73 per cent rejected the motion.
Addressing the egm, chairman Ned Sullivan said the plc “has run out of cash, has no assets of worth and no bank facilities”. Its main Irish businesses were in receivership, the British businesses had been sold as had its Club business in Spain. Its remaining Spanish businesses had been placed into insolvency procedures, he said.
Mr Sullivan said the directors had exhausted “all possible efforts and options” to rescue the group.
“In this situation, it is not realistic to consider that there is any equity value for the shareholders,” Mr Sullivan said.
The company celebrated its centenary in 2009 and, until the recession took hold, the McInerney Group remained one of Ireland’s leading construction companies.