“Others use offshore structures for “asset protection”—frequently, to avoid angry creditors. That seems to be the case with a company called Postlake Ltd.—registered on the Isle of Man—which owns a $5.6 million apartment on the fourth floor. Postlake is in turn registered as owned by Purcey Ltd., a B.V.I. entity, which is registered as held on behalf of an Isle of Man trust set up by the bankrupt Irish property developer Ray Grehan” The 1st April 2013 edition of Vanity Fair which takes a look at One Hyde Park, the uber-expensive block of apartments overlooking Hyde Park in Knightsbridge
He was one of the first major developers to fall out with NAMA and despite recently emerging from UK bankruptcy, he still has the Agency on his tail. Developer Ray Grehan along with his brother Danny were behind Glenkerrin homes, the Glenroyal Hotel and the site of the UCD veterinary college in Ballsbridge for which they paid €84m an acre and which has recently been placed on the market at €7m an acre.
In April 2011, NAMA moved against them appointing receivers which were temporarily “stood down” but the reprieve was short-lived as NAMA had receivers appointed to assets in Ireland and the UK, obtained a €300m judgment (each) against the brothers and took legal action in the UK, the US and Canada aimed at reversing asset transfers. In September 2012, NAMA sued Ray Grehan over the transfer in August 2010 of an apartment in the One Hyde Park complex in Knightsbridge (pictured below)
This month’s edition of Vanity Fair reports on the apartment block where penthouses can set you back over €150m and where Russian and Kazakh money has even edged out Middle Eastern wealth. The Grehan apartment, despite carrying a price tag of over €4m is pretty basic and as far as I can tell overlooks the busy road junction connecting Hyde Park to Kensington and South Kensington and Sloane Square. The NAMA case in the UK is still ongoing, so it is interesting that Vanity Fair reports that the apartment is ultimately owned by a trust set up by Ray Grehan. Vanity Fair doesn’t say if the trust is still controlled by Ray Grehan but say that Ray claims the apartment now belongs to a “family trust”.
