The outcome of confidential arbitral proceedings between a Paddy McKillen firm and the Qatari owners of the luxury Maybourne hotel group in London will not have a material impact on the accounts of the business.
That is according to directors for the Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani controlled Coroin Ltd in newly filed accounts.
High highness, Sheik Al Thani is a member of the ruling Qatari royal family.
Coroin operates the five-star Claridges hotel in London, and the firm’s 2021 accounts confirm that Mr McKillen’s Hume Street Management Consultants Ltd (HSMC) received £3.75 million (€4.22 million) in consultancy fees.
HSMC’s lucrative seven-year contract to manage and redevelop the London portfolio ended last April.
Mr McKillen claims he is owed billions of pounds under a profit-share agreement struck with the Qataris in 2015, when they took over his then 36 per cent interest in the Maybourne Hotel Group, owner of the luxury Claridge’s, the Connaught and the Berkeley hotels in London.
Mr McKillen has also claimed that he is owed “tens of millions of dollars” in fees on work carried out transforming the Maybourne Beverly Hills hotel in Los Angeles into a “world-class establishment” over the past two years.
The lawsuit was filed by Mr McKillen’s HSMC with the superior court of the state of California for the county of Los Angeles last year.
In a note attached to the Coroin accounts under the heading of “subsequent events” it states that Coroin “is a claimant in ongoing confidential arbitral proceedings against a service provider which involve a disputed counterclaim by the service provider against the company”.
The note adds: “That counterclaim concerns sums that allegedly became payable by the company to the service provider after the end of the relevant accounting period in respect of services allegedly provided to the company after the end of the accounting period.”
The note concludes that “the directors don’t believe the outcome will have a material impact on the accounts”.
Separately, HSMC launched legal proceedings in France last year claiming €19.6 million of unpaid project management fees in relation to the Maybourne Riviera, formerly the Vista Palace, overlooking Monaco and the Mediterranean Sea.
The directors’ report for Coroin confirms a strong Irish influence at the Maybourne Beverly Hills – Clare man and graduate of the Shannon College of Hotel Management, Eugene Leonard was appointed as general manager of the hotel in February 2021.
The directors state that the rooms and suites were redesigned by the “highly acclaimed Bryan O’Sullivan” throughout 2021.
Coroin recorded a pretax loss of £53.8 million in 2021 due to the Covid-19 impact and finance costs of £40 million. Revenues doubled to £61.5 million.
