THE MANSFIELD family, owners of the Citywest hotel complex in Saggart, Co Dublin, do not have to stand behind the debts of their collapsed business because of the use of companies based in the Isle of Man, creditors were told yesterday.
Creditors owed tens of millions of euro yesterday voiced anger at the way the owners of the group are protected from its debts.
The hotel, two golf courses, a convention centre, apartment blocks and other buildings, all at Saggart, are owned by an unlimited company, HSS. Unlimited liability companies do not publish accounts but their owners are liable for their debts.
Approximately 100 people who attended a creditors’ meeting yesterday at the hotel were told that HSS, which has been placed in liquidation, has links with Isle of Man companies in a way that limits the liability of the Mansfields.
The liability of HSS is limited by the Isle of Man structure, the group’s former financial controller, Richie Mahon, told the meeting. “It’s all above board.”
Filings in the Companies Office for HSS show it is owned by Isle of Man companies and that its directors, founder Jim Mansfield and other members of the family, are also directors of companies in the Isle of Man.
Mr Mansfield’s son, Tony Mansfield, was the only member of the family to attend yesterday’s meeting.
The creditors were told the directors believed the HSS premises were worth €120 million in July 2010. However, Bank of Scotland Ireland is owed €140 million and has a charge on most of the fixed assets.
Bank of Scotland Ireland originally appointed Martin Ferris as a receiver to HSS last July. Mr Ferris ran it as a going concern up until yesterday, when the directors announced that they were placing it in liquidation.
Unsecured creditors, many of them small traders, are owed €37.7 million. According to the group’s statement of affairs, there will be only €6.4 million available for them and this is dependent on €120 million being raised by selling the premises.
The Mansfield family has given personal guarantees to the banks over any amounts left outstanding once the assets have been disposed. The family has other businesses that are not part of the HSS liquidation.
A creditor who said she was owed €40,000 asked Mr Mansfield “how do you go to bed with the thought that you have put so many people into so much trouble”?
“I am human too,” Mr Mansfield responded. “Every effort will be made for the unsecured creditors.”
However, creditors said they had heard the family was trying to buy back the business.“I tell you we are not trying to buy the hotel,” said Mr Mansfield.
