It comes as a surprise to some that there is still economic life in the colourful Johnny Ronan, the co-founder of Treasury Holdings which failed spectacularly last year after NAMA and KBC moved against it; Johnny currently has at least two high profile legal cases on the go in the High Court – as co-owner of Tanat Limited, Johnny is currently pursuing Dublin City Council over a rental agreement at Kingram House off Fitzwilliam Square, and separately as owner of Ickendel Limited, he is pursuing Bewley’s over their rental agreement at their outlet on Grafton Street. Despite his difficulties with NAMA last year, Johnny is said to be still cooperating with the Agency on his personal loans. Those familiar with Johnny’s story will know that his origins are in Tipperary where his dad was a pig farmer in Carrick-on-Suir, but it seems he is a member of a large family of entrepreneurs.
We previously saw in the Vita Cortex dispute that Jack Ronan, understood to be a cousin of Johnny’s, also had loans transferred to NAMA and indeed, NAMA was blamed by Vita Cortex management at the time for the failure of the company, which memorably saw a sit-in for 161 days after workers held out for what they claim was a promised-redundancy deal. Jack has a range of business interests including Orchardstown stud, a pre-school business called KangaKare, supermarkets through the La Plange group and a pig biotechnology business PIC Ireland Limited,
Today, we learn via Iris Oifigiuil that more Tipperary companies in the Ronan dynasty have failed. Liquidators have been appointed to Moville Investments Limited, Rocklow Holdings Limited and John Ronan and Sons Limited. The directors and owners of all three are Paul Ronan (57) and Thomas Ronan (50) who are understood to be second cousins of the colourful Johnny. At a meeting on 18th January 2013, Michael White of Courhouse Chambers in Cork was appointed liquidator to all three companies.
NAMA Wine Lake 
Big day for Johnny with TCT results due out…may be a yank thing but website is not responding.
http://www.treasurychinatrust.com/
They ran an ad in the IT earlier about today..all very strange.
“Mr David said TCT would release full-year accounts on February 27th.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2013/0130/1224329430011.html
In fairness,could be computer gremlins or a glitch,will try later.
@John, no the TCT website is down – just checked various pages of it now.
@NWL thank you,on such a big day too…no REO numbers…ah now no TCT numbers….actually mystery solved…welcome to Forterra Trust…..now why go TOO all this trouble and strife to shed such a long established ‘brand’ as TCT….. will review a little later and trow an aul pencil over the numbers and news.These guys are awfully fond of changing names/listing venues-can only imagine the FEE”S involved…
http://www.forterra.com/manager/property.aspx
“Listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (“SGX-ST”), Forterra Trust (“Forterra”) (formerly known as Treasury China Trust) is a leading owner, manager and developer and manager of commercial real estate in China.”
there was some reporting i think on Sunday,regarding above-all quotes/links to Forterra trust site.
1-Launch of New Brand Identify !
The name change is a bit of a head scratcher…why utilise Latin words in China…not an expert on branding but really this is cringe inducing…hope people pick up on the accent oh so subtle and sublime..such flair and aplomb…
“Forterra”, inspired by the Latin words “Fortis”, meaning “strength”, and “Terra”, meaning “land”, provides the link to our core real estate operations and reinforces Forterra’s position as a solid and reliable player in owning, managing and developing commercial real estate in China. The logotype uses a simple, weighty graphic style to reinforce this message of strength and solidity, whilst the accent rising upwards from the third “r” is a subtle reference to Forterra’s characteristic flair and vision.”
The real reason is to put some distance between Treasury and its somewhat tarnished reputation …nuff said here is David…
“The move to Forterra and the associated modern branding and imagery, whilst prompted by the formal process to dissociate ourselves from our former sponsor…”
So thats its thousands and thousands of unit holders money wasted/spent on this new launch…oh naturally required closing down the TCT web site and updating the document retention/distribution policy….
2-Strategic Review Update-first off the unit price has performed very well of late,no really it has.However,companies often trade on a discount/premium based on the ‘reputation’ of senior executives/boards large shareholders.
The critical number here is the Net Asset Value-NAV-of the units and the discount/premium to same.Its basically the ‘break up’ value off the underlying assets in the portfolio.
The infamous GS report has now been finished and is available to all-a joke-course its not!
Despite numerous reference/issues regarding this report it still has not been released…its the oldest trick in the book,get a ‘draft’ from consultants and either bin it or have it rewritten-here are the issues current/past.
(i) The court judgement of 31 July 2012 (refer announcement dated 1 August 2012) permitting the appointment of Receivers to various subsidiaries of Treasury Holdings;
(ii) The sale by Treasury Holdings China Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Treasury Holdings) of its equity interest in Treasury Holdings Real Estate Pte. Ltd (now Forterra Real Estate Pte. Ltd) and Treasury Holdings (Shanghai) Property Management Consulting Co. Ltd
(Property Manager to Forterra’s real estate portfolio) to Oriental Management Services Limited (refer announcement dated 28 August 2012);
iii) The issues associated with the Treasury Holdings liquidator potentially pursuing a reversal of the sale of the Trustee-Manager and Property Manager to Oriental Management Services Limited (refer announcement dated 3 September 2012);
(iv) The appointment of a Liquidator to Treasury Holdings on 9 October 2012 (refer announcement dated 10 October 2012);
(v) The status of the Forum convertible bond facility (refer announcement dated 14 November 2012); and
(vi) Treasury Asian Investments Limited (“TAIL”) and its approximate 9.8% ownership of Forterra and the plenary summons issued by the National Asset Management Agency of Ireland (refer announcements dated 28 February and 23 November 2012).
Basically,no further acquisitions….hoping flog/sell two assets-some pricing issues it would appear-the cash situation is quite interesting.
Will review annual numbers probably tomorrow,but there you have everything is hunk dory…..if they seriously want to close the gap btw. NAV and unit price fire/sack/get rid of Richard Barret yesterday….instead wasting money on name/brand changes.
“China’s RE bubble….its all fake” 60 minutes expose,ghost estate/cities,empty shopping malls….mostly about residential but…..commercial will be impacted unless of course there is a soft landing!
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50142079n
Novel theme: chinese nail houses and ‘development’:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_house
….and all for the want of a horseshoe nail
in case anyone is interested eh Christmas Day falls on the 25th December again this year,that info is about as useful as the ‘report’ in yesterdays Sindo on this PROPOSED transaction…..can that hack not read ?
“The Trustee-Manager commissioned an independent Valuation of the Property. The independent Valuation dated 31 December 2012 determined the market value of the Property to be RMB1.813 billion as at 31 December 2012.
The Sale Consideration of approximately US$266.73 million (equivalent to RMB1.67 billion) is a discount of RMB143.0 million (approximately 7.9%) to the Valuation. The Proposed Sale is expected to result in a gain of approximately S$21.47 million on the following basis:”
So basically,they are fire selling this asset below its carrying value….unless there is a problem with the valuations that is……..
http://ir.forterra.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=237568&p=irol-IRHome
@JG, don’t be sniffy about that Sindo report.
You had this “scoop” about Derek Quinlan “returning to the market” yesterday (14th April 2013)
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/quinlan-makes-return-to-property-market-with-kalli-29194677.html
Which was reported by Property Week on 5th April 2013 “Quinlan to make market return”
http://www.propertyweek.com/news/news-by-sector/offices/quinlan-to-make-market-return/5052877.article
And in truth, Derek Quinlan is no more making a market return that John Fleming, Bernard McNamara nor any of the other members of the army of “property consultants”. Derek is not buying on his own account nor obtaining loans in his own name. Still, the Sindo got 500-words out of a week old Property Week non-story.
I remember the Sunday Tribune used to lift Property Week stories wholesale before its demise.
There was a rather rambling piece on ‘Gayle’ too but in fairness its worth the price,I get the ‘e’ edition for the always excellent “Colm McCarthy” pieces.Got my Forterra annual report…happy days taxes paid and a good read ahead….is it a thriller or fiction let you know !
Click to access publication.pdf