P Elliot group facing an uncertain future as loans transfer to NAMA

Cavan-based construction and development company, the P Elliot Group is reported to have laid-off staff yesterday after a tense meeting with suppliers and sub-contractors. A hardware and building supplies shop owned by the group is also rumoured to be shutting down. There does not appear to be any official statement by the company and the Irish Times reports that no-one from the Group was available for comment yesterday.

The Irish Times goes on to report that it is “understood” that loans that the Group has from Bank of Ireland and Anglo have transferred to NAMA, though it is further stated that the assets and underlying security for the loans are “said” to be good quality.

According to the company’s website “the Elliott family business was founded in 1942 by the late Patrick & Alice Elliott, grandparents of the current owners.  That year, the business won its first construction contract.  Now, over sixty years later, the organisation has developed into one ofIreland’s leading property development and construction firms with a turnover in 2006 of €300m.” It goes on to say that it employs 250 people, though the Irish Times puts it at 230 in 2009 and says that number may have reduced since. Outside ofIreland, the company has offices in theUK andSaudi Arabia.

The current board includes Noel Elliot, both Senior and Junior, and Mark and Darragh Elliot. The company claims the following commercial and residential developments as “notable” Cavan Retail Park, Lakeland Retail Park, Cavan ,Pullamore Business Park, Cavan , Newcourt Shopping Centre, Cavan , Townspark Centre, Cavan, Verschoyle House, Mount Street, Dublin 2, Cookstown Court, Tallaght, Dublin 24, Units at Ballymount Industrial Estate, Units at Bray Business Park, Units at Donore Industrial Estate, Drogheda, Irish Times Building, d’Olier Street, Dublin 2, Residential Site at Stepaside, Co Dublin, Kilcock Residential Site, Carrington, Northwood, Santry, Dublin 9, York Street, Belfast, Mixed Development Site at Pullamore Far, Cavan and PriorsGate, Tallaght, Dublin 24

There is no suggestion in any reporting that NAMA is behind current developments at the P Elliot Group.

UPDATE: 4th May, 2011. It is reported in today’s Irish Times that at least one creditor has served the Elliot’s with a 21-day payment notice, on the expiry of which the creditor may seek to have the group wound up. The creditor in question is OMC Engineering which the newspaper claims is due €100,000.

UPDATE: 17th May, 2011. P Elliot got a temporary reprieve yesterday when a creditor reportedly owed €1.7m sought an adjournment for two weeks to allow its claim to be correctly advertised.  There are now at least four creditors chasing P Elliot for money through the courts,  the participants in yesterday’s case, construction recruiter MCR Personnel,  William Cox Ireland, Oran Precast and OMC Engineering.

UPDATE: 19th May, 2011. News this evening from RTE that a (unnamed) receiver has been appointed to the group.

UPDATE: 20th May, 2011. Further reporting today on the appointment of receivers. The Irish Times reports that the joint receivers are Kieran Wallace and Cormac O’Connor of KPMG and there is the quite startling claim that the group (which includes a related company, Dewside Limited) owes over €0.5bn to creditors which include NAMA (which has taken on loans from Anglo), Bank of  Scotland (Ireland), ACC and Bank of Ireland. Subbies are owed in excess of €20m alone.

UPDATE: 21st May, 2011. The Irish Times today reports that the group owes €120m, not €500m as suggested by some reports.  The appointment of receivers was at the behest of the group itself in the face of various recovery actions by creditors.  The newspaper goes with the headline that the group wrote off €43m from the value of its property in its 2009 accounts.

UPDATE: 23rd May, 2011. The Sunday Business Post adds a little more information to the receivership. The newspaper claims that directors of the group have loans from the group “running to tens of millions of euro, and have given substantial personal guarantees to the banks. ” and also that subbies may be owed €50m once related companies in the P Elliott group are taken into account.

UPDATE: 24th May, 2011. Of not a great deal of significance, the Irish Times today reports that two creditors, William Cox Ireland and Oran Precast , who had sought winding-up orders, have withdrawn their applications now that a receiver has been appointed to the company.

UPDATE: 1st June, 2011. The Irish Times confirms that the joint receivers, Kieran Wallace and Cormac O’Connor of KPMG, are now in control of 15 Elliott companies including (1) Elliott Holdings (2) P Elliott Company (3) Hillqueen (4) Flag Properties (Cavan) (5) Elliott Steel Fabricators (6) Woodskills (7) AMG Facades

UPDATE: 10th June, 2011. The BBC reports that the Northern Irish operations of the P Elliott group have been placed in court-ordered liquidation. The liquidator is not disclosed. This move was widely expected.

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