The slew of objections filed this week in the US bankruptcy proceedings of Irish Bank Resolutions Corporation (IBRC) has delayed by several weeks its bid to protect up to $1 billion of its assets from potential seizure by creditors.
Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson of KPMG, the special liquidators of IBRC, had originally sought an emergency hearing at a Delaware court yesterday for Chapter 15 protection.
This would protect its US assets from a litany of lawsuits brought against it by US creditors, until the bank’s Irish wind-down was completed.
However, IBRC agreed to shelve the hearing and replace it with a “scheduling conference” to come to arrangements on a timetable for discovery of documents with the objectors.
The objectors argue IBRC is not entitled to the protection. They include a number of Anglo borrowers led by John Flynn, a US resident who developed several properties in Smithfield early in the Dublin property boom. Flynn's group has taken a New York fraud case against the bank, which would be halted if the protection was granted.
Limit the scope
The liquidators yesterday asked the court to limit the scope of documents sought by two other objectors, a pair of hedge funds controlled by US billionaire Paul Singer.
Burlington Alpha and Burlington Beta, the two Singer funds who own $75 million of subordinated debt in the bank, told the court they want access to documents about the transfer of IBRC's assets to Nama and the decision to set up the state's 'bad bank'. The Burlington Funds are subsidiaries of Elliott Wealth Management.
