A London property investment company has registered matching €2 million judgments against former Ireland rugby international Brendan Mullin and his one-time business partner Stephane Fund in relation to loans used to fund the purchase of luxury apartments in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, from the National Asset Management Agency.
Mr Mullin (58) was a director and sole shareholder of Bisvale DAC until his resignation from the board last September.
The company owned 11 apartments at the Shrewsbury Square development on Sandymount Avenue in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, and two adjoining townhouses which it bought from Nama in 2017 with a view to redeveloping the properties. London-based ARA Venn Capital funded the 2017 transaction but last October the company had David O’Connor, partner at BDO’s corporate recovery department, appointed as receiver over the assets.
Bisvale, which has not filed accounts since 2018, owed more than €11 million to creditors at the end of 2017, according to its most recent set of accounts.
It is understood that the loans used to fund the Shrewsbury Square purchase were secured against the Dublin 4 assets as well as personal guarantees made by the two businessmen at the time of the transaction, which were called in by ARA Venn Capital last year.
High Court proceedings were initiated in December 2021 and summary judgment was granted against Mr Mullin and Mr Fund in late April.
ARA Venn Capital registered two €2 million judgments — one against Mr Mullin and one against Mr Fund — through an Irish agent, Mount Street Mortgage Financing on July 21st. The judgments appeared in the latest issue of Stubbs Gazette.
Solicitors for Mr Mullin and Mr Fund could not be reached for comment.
Shrewsbury Square was built by developers Sebastian Devlin and Johnny Burns of Woodgreen Property at the height of the boom.
The upmarket scheme was launched months before the 2008 property crash. Woodgreen managed to sell all but 13 properties in the 80-apartment development with the unsold assets ending up in Nama before being put up for sale in 2016 with a guide price of €9.5 million.
This story was amended on Thursday, 4th of August, 2022
