Johnny Ronan would appear to have had more than his share of bad luck when it comes to business partners. Over the years the hirsute property developer has frequently found himself in court arguing his corner in a dispute with one or other of his erstwhile collaborators.
Ronan would probably not describe Nama as a partner, but he did end up in a legal wrangle with the State-owned bad bank after it took over around €1.7 billion of debt Treasury Holdings owed to the Irish banks.
Treasury, which he set up with qualified barrister Richard Barrett in the late 1980s, had a reputation as an aggressive and strategic litigator but by and large steered clear of the courts.
The company went into liquidation in October 2012 on foot of a winding up petition from KBC bank after nine-months of litigation. The previous June, Nama had brought a High Court action against Ronan and Barrett, in relation to a controversial €20 million transaction that involved the alleged transfer of shares out of the Treasury group at a significant undervalue.
The action was eventually settled in a deal that netted €46 million for the Treasury liquidator and its unsecured creditors, but also €4 million for Barrett and about €3 million for Ronan.
The judge who presided over the cases said the court was always concerned when defendants against whom serious allegations were made were not walking away empty-handed. The settlement was in the best interests of the liquidation, he said, and was both legally and commercially justified.
Ronan shrugged off this scrap and exited Nama in 2015 by paying off his personal debts of €290 million with the backing of two international property funds Colony Capital and M&G Investments. It was reported that the funds lent him €250 million secured on his portfolio of 24 properties. The balance was offset by Nama against ten different issues he successfully argued should be taken into account.
Ronan and Colony embarked on a series of big office block developments in Dublin including the Waterfront in the Dublin docks – Citibank’s new head office – and Fibonacci Square in Ballsbridge – home to Meta.
The relationship with Colony appeared to work well. As the Irish partner he had a small equity stake and brought his skills and experiences to the projects. Colony and others provided the money.
[ Johnny Ronan’s dispute with Fortress Investment Group enters Commercial CourtOpens in new window ]
The relationship seemed to sour when Colony looked to sell its interest in the Irish projects as part of wider transaction with another US investment business, Fortress Investment Group, in 2021. Ronan sought to injunct the sale in the Commercial Court, and then settled.
The deal went through but Ronan and Fortress were not easy bed fellows. The reason for his objection to the original sale was not clear at the time but subsequent events point to it being concerns over the consequences for his efforts to refinance the loans from Colony secured on his personal portfolio.
He took Fortress to court for breach of contract in July 2023, saying the US group was failing to engage with his efforts to refinance and seeking damages. Fortress said that Ronan owed €93 million and that his litigation was to obstruct Fortress from exercising its contractual rights. It claimed Ronan currently owed €10 million and could not discharge the debt.
The case is still before the courts and Ronan has opened a second front taking a separate case saying Fortress owes him €3.3 million from a business disruption insurance claim.
Events seem to have overtaken the case, and most of Ronan’s assets have been put on the market by receivers appointed either by Fortress or Bank of Ireland and AIB which in 2022 refinanced the loans given to Ronan by M&G when he exited Nama.
The appointment of Grant Thornton as receiver to 11 of the properties in November by the banks was described as consensual. They included Connaught House and 78-79 Grafton Street where the tenant is Bewley’s Café with whom Ronan fought and won a lengthy legal battle over who owns the famous Harry* Clarke stained-glass windows that adorn its walls. PWC’s appointment by Fortress in the same month seems less convivial.
It was reported over the summer that he had secured backing from Landfair, an Anglo-Swiss investment company cofounded by former Colony executive Stefan Jaeger to buy the 11 properties currently in receivership from Grant Thornton, but that deal seems to have come to naught. Several of the properties have been sold.
During what must have been a busy summer Ronan found the time to enter arbitration in a dispute with Dún Laoghaire County Council over the development of 1,000 apartments in Cherrywood. This was terminated after he failed to meet various milestones.
Despite his difficulties It would be a mistake to write the 70-year-old developer off given the Lazarus-like qualities he has exhibited in the past. He remains a partner with Lioncor and Oaktree in the large Glass Bottle development in Ringsend and is looking to build 550 new homes and two office buildings in the docks. Hopefully he will have better luck in finding a collaborator for this project.
*This article was amended on October 2nd, 2024
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