THE ELLIOTT construction group, part of which went into receivership on Wednesday, wrote almost €43 million off the value of its property investments at the end of 2009, according to its most recent accounts.
P Elliott Company’s directors voluntarily asked its main financier, Ulster Bank, to appoint a receiver to the construction and property group on Wednesday night. The move came as a number of creditors were preparing to petition the High Court to wind up the company next week.
P Elliott & Company yesterday issued a statement confirming the appointment of receivers – Kieran Wallace and Cormac O’Connor of KPMG – to the business.
It also clarified that its debts total €120 million, and not €500 million as some reports suggested.
The statement also pointed out that some of its liabilities are secured against its assets, but conceded these were “seriously impaired”, that is, their value has fallen sharply as a result of the recession.
The company’s other main creditors are Bank of Ireland, Nama (as a result of the company’s loans with Anglo Irish Bank), Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and ACC.
Sub-contractors are also significant creditors, and are owed in excess of €20 million.
The company, which employed 230 people in 2009, had a staff of between 15 to 20 working in Ireland, and employed between 20 and 30 in Britain. The Cavan-based group laid off most of its staff before Easter.
Accounts for Elliott Holdings, P Elliott & Company’s parent, and the entity which guarantees the liabilities of the group’s businesses, show that a total of €42.8 million was written off the value of various assets in 2009.
Development sites and investment properties were responsible for over €18 million of this loss of value. A similar sum was provided for against related-party debt, much of which was also linked to property.
The accounts show that related parties and subsidiaries owed €65 million to Elliott Holdings at the end of 2009.
Elliott Holdings lost €29 million in 2009, but this was down to the fall in the value of its assets. Its actual building business was profitable, and those operations generated a profit of €10.4 million, despite the recession’s impact.
Yesterday’s statement pointed out that the liabilities of a number of companies and partnerships involving Elliott directors and shareholders are “outside of P Elliott & Co”.
The High Court is scheduled to hear two petitions on Monday to wind up P Elliott & Company from suppliers and sub-contractors Oran Precast and William Cox.
Earlier this week, a similar petition from MCR, which supplied workers to the business, was adjourned. That company is owed €1.7 million, and told the High Court last Monday that this money is due for services provided over a six-year period.
A 21-day notice served earlier this month by another creditor, OMC Engineering, is due to expire on Tuesday. This would also give the right to that company to seek P Elliott’s wind up.
