Capel Developments, the latest company to fall prey to NAMA’s receivers?

Sources claim that the Edward Keegan-Liam Kelly-John O’Connor company, Capel Developments may have been on the receiving end of NAMA’s now well-practised receivership routine today with notices delivered to key personnel at the crack of dawn followed by an appointment of receiver after midday.

It was only today that the latest accounts for Capel-controlled, Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links were reported. Although Natworth, the direct owner of the Portmarnock complex reported losses of €400,000 for 2009, down from €800,000 the previous year and also reported the value of the complex was now estimated at €18.2m compared with its valuation of €70m in 2005, there was no immediate urgency imparted in the accounts.

Capel is associated with a string of high value developments acrossDublinincluding Sandford Lodge(Ranelagh), Rathborne (Ashtown,Dublin), Lyndon (Blackrock), Dunstaffnage (Stillorgan),OrwellPark(Rathgar),Hazelbrook Square(Churchtown) and the Sunday World site (Terenure).

A request for confirmation of the receivership has been made to NAMA, and this post will be updated with any further details.

There is a list maintained here of all confirmed NAMA receiverships and recovery actions.

UPDATE:  20th April, 2011. The Independent today confirms the above news and claims that Simon Coyle of Mazars has been appointed receiver to the company. Capel Developments itself which controls a web of other companies Capel has been listed by the Companies Registration Office for striking-off since April 10, for not filing accounts since since April 2009.  The Independent reports that its accounts for the year to the end of February 2008, shows a €43.6m loss that year.

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The Nyberg report : yet another examination of the property and credit bubble in the 2000s

The latest and possibly last report into the financial crisis in 2008 has this afternoon been published – this is the report and this is the Department of Finance press statement. The “Nyberg Report” is produced by Finnish former public servant, Peter Nyberg who has been working on it for the past nine months. It was referred to the Gardai and the Director of Public Prosecutions on 22nd March, 2011. The report examines the background and events leading up to the bank guarantee in September 2008.

There will be analysis on here later with a focus on property lending.

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Dublin office market: vacancy falling, rents stabilising, potential shortages. Yes, it’s another property company’s research note.

It will be 3pm on 28th April, 2011 when SCSI/IPD release their commercial property series forIrelandfor quarter one, 2011. The competing commercial property index from Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is due any day now, it was released on 11th January, 2011 in respect of quarter four, 2010. The betting on here is that there will be continuing capital falls though rent decline might moderate.

In advance of the above two releases, we have a report from JLL on the Dublin Office (rental) market for Q1, 2011 which concludes that activity increased though the five deals below accounted for exactly 80% of the space rented in Q1. The report also claims that rents are stabilising with actual rents of just over €27/psf in the centre and €15/psf elsewhere. Headline rents are still in the €30-35 psf range for the centre but with rent-free periods and other temptations, the actual figure is considerably south of that.

The report also points to the tightening of supply with the overall vacancy rate dropping to 21% and there only being a handful of new 100,000 sq ft offices available acrossDublin. It is not clear how hard NAMA is pushing for development of its office development assets, for example, the Liam Carroll partly-constructed Anglo HQ, but the tenor of the JLL report is that, despite the overhang, there might be a demand for new large-sized, third generation, well-located accommodation.

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