FINANCIER DEREK Quinlan has been “effectively kept afloat” by two billionaires since October 2010 in return for his support in their battle to control a company that owns some of London’s finest hotels, a London court was told yesterday.
The charge was made by property developer Paddy McKillen, who alleges he was denied the opportunity of taking over the Maybourne Hotel Group because of collusion between Mr Quinlan and Frederick and David Barclay.
The case, which involves the Connaught, the Berkeley and Claridge’s, and which is set to last four weeks before Mr Justice David Richards in the Chancery Division of the High Court in London, has attracted the talents of some of the highest-paid barristers in Britain.
In an argument presented on Mr McKillen’s behalf, it was alleged that debts and bills “apparently too numerous to list” incurred by Mr Quinlan and his wife had been discharged by the billionaire brothers, who own the Daily Telegraph, among other assets.
The payments were “obviously” a consideration for Mr Quinlan for his support for the Barclays, who bought €800 million worth of debt held on the hotels by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).
Nama has been made a party to the case by Mr McKillen, although counsel for the agency, Robin Dicker, said it had validly disposed of the loan.
The agency, he went on, was not otherwise involved “save to uphold the validity of the transaction it entered into”.
Mr McKillen bought a 36 per cent share in the hotels after Mr Quinlan put together a team of investors in 2004. Nama, he claims, did not have the right to sell the debt to the Barclays, while he also had the right to buy a share of Mr Quinlan’s 33 per cent holding.
However, Kenneth Maclean, representing other parties, said Mr McKillen had agreed to reduce his shareholding in a deal with the Qatari investors Al Mirqab in February 2011.
In a letter on February 14th, Aidan Barclay, David Barclay’s son, told the then minister for finance, the late Brian Lenihan, that an agreement had been reached between the Barclays, Mr McKillen and the Qataris.
