This article is from page 2 of the 2012-06-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE Kiawah Resort Associates group remains “fully committed” to its exclusive five-star Doonbeg golf course resort, despite fears this week that legal action in America could spark a fire-sale of its assets.
The golf course, which was designed by two-time British Open winner Greg Norman and officially opened in 2002, is part of an overall development built at a cost of nearly € 30 million by the South Carolinabased Kiawah Resort Associates group.
However, the company’s minority shareholders have filed a lawsuit claiming that Charles ‘Buddy’ Darby – the majority owner of the firm – has been “siphoning off” and “misappropriating” income and assets for the benefit of himself and his family.
The minority owners – who include members of Mr Darby’s extended family – want a Carolina court to order that both Doonbeg and a resort on the paradise Caribbean island of St Kitts be sold off and the proceeds distributed amongst all the beneficial owners.
In a lengthy complaint just filed in a Charleston court, minority owners of Kiawah Resort Associates have made a number of allegations.
They claim Mr Darby has engaged in a “systematic, unremitting course of conduct” over a number of years to exclude minority partners from the business and affairs of the Kiawah operation.
They say they’ve been denied access to corporate information and that Mr Darby has attempted to “freeze them out”.
Mr Darby, court documents say, secured majority control of the Kiawah business in 1997. The minority partners allege that he has effectively operated the business as his own.
“There is no board of directors to oversee Buddy Darby’s total dominion” of the Kiawah business, they’ve told the court. They say he has also “unilaterally directed profits” from Kiawah businesses to himself and other businesses that have links to his own immediate family.
“Personally, I am disappointed that this action has been taken,” said Mr Darby.
“I would have hoped that the matters could have been resolved out of court and that is still my wish.”
Mr Darby said that the Kiawah group remains “fully committed” to Doonbeg and its “continuing success now and in the future”.
The Kiwah group has accumulated losses of € 48 million, but the company has a target of turning a profit at the Doonbeg resort by 2014.
In 2008, the group valued the Doonbeg links at € 17 million and buildings at € 14 million. Th e e a rly o u t lo o k fo r n e xt we e k is fo r m o re c lo u d s, o c c a sio n a l ra in a n d n o re a l su n n y d a ys ye t .