AUDITORS OF a holding company owned by members of the Quinn family have made an adverse finding against it for its failure to produce consolidated accounts.
Quinn Finance Holding is an unlimited company, a subsidiary company of which has an interest in property in central Europe, Russia and India, and was involved in the family’s disastrous investment in Anglo Irish Bank.
The holding company was listed for strike off recently for failing to file due auditor’s reports and annual returns. It has now filed the documents. As an unlimited company it does not have to file accounts.
The auditors have filed reports for both the 2007 and 2008 years, with the reports both dated February 18th, 2010.
In their report on the 2008 year the auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), say the directors are of the opinion that consolidated accounts were not prepared as the information necessary could not be obtained without disproportionate expense and undue delay. However, the auditors say these reasons cannot justify excluding subsidiaries that are material from group accounts.
“Consequently, in our opinion, the financial statements do not give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the group at 31 December 2008, or of its results for the year then ended.”
However, the accountants say the accounts do give a true and fair view of the company on a “single entity basis”.
The auditors also emphasise that they have considered the adequacy of disclosures made in the accounts and in particular a guarantee of the liabilities of subsidiary company Quinn Finance, and its subsidiaries. They say their opinion is not qualified in that respect.
Identical points are made in the report on the 2007 accounts.
Quinn Finance has a substantial stake in investments, including property, in central Europe, Russia and India, by way of another company, Stockholm-based Quinn Investments Sweden.
In the 2008 auditor’s report for Quinn Finance, filed in November last, PwC included a notice concerning a “material uncertainty” that could affect the company’s ability to remain as a going concern.
A spokesman for the Quinn family said this arose from the family’s Anglo investment and was “not related to the performance of the family’s property portfolio, which continues to be satisfactory”.
On the auditor’s report, he said “the issue concerning group accounts was a technicality and the accounts gave a true and fair picture of the single entity”.
In January 2008, Quinn Finance Holding registered a charge on the shares of Quinn Finance Holdings (Jersey) Ltd to the benefit of Anglo Irish Bank.
The assets held by Quinn Finance Holding are separate to the Quinn Group, which is the group of firms built up by Seán Quinn and which includes Quinn Healthcare, Quinn Insurance, and Quinn Cement.
In July 2008, charges were taken out by Anglo on shares in the Quinn Group holding company. The charges included a charge on preference shares that would, on default, have given the bank control of the board of the Quinn Group holding company. These shares were redeemed three weeks after the charge was registered.
The Quinn Group and the family are understood to be the largest customer of the now nationalised Anglo Irish Bank.
The group has written off close to €900 million it loaned to the family companies so they could fund their dealings in Anglo shares. A dividend of €200 million paid out by the group recently is understood to have been invested in the family companies.
