BALLYMORE, the construction business owned by Seán Mulryan, has won planning permission for a substantial development in London.
The group, which has agreed a business plan with the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), received the permission despite an objection from the administrators of Battersea Power Station, the creditors of which include Nama.
While the administrators, Ernst Young, objected to the retail element of the proposed development, Nama said it believed the administrator’s objections were misguided.
Wandsworth Council has approved the plan by UK company Ballymore Group Ltd to turn a former DHL depot and adjoining land into almost 2,000 homes at a site near the power station.
A total of 1,626 to 1,982 apartments may be built, as well as shops, a car showroom, a 100-bed hotel and offices, according to the planning application. The site is known as Embassy Gardens and will be developed next to a five-acre plot sold to the US government in 2009 for a new embassy.
Meanwhile accounts for one of the main Irish companies in the Ballymore Group, Ballymore Properties Ireland Ltd, show that it suffered a pre-tax loss of €13.4 million in the year to the end of March, 2011. This compared with a pre-tax loss of €51 million the previous year.
The company provides project management and administration services to the group. It has written down gross receivables from group companies of €58.4 million to just €2.6 million, to reflect the impairments from the fall in asset values.
At the end of March 2011, the company had net liabilities of €78.2 million. However, the accounts were prepared on a going-concern basis, with the group committed to making available the funds necessary.
The group in turn, according to the accounts, is dependent on ongoing financial support from its lenders, which include Irish, British and European banks.
During 2011, the group submitted a business plan to Nama which has been approved by the agency, according to the accounts.
An agreed memorandum of understanding sets out the various conditions and key performance indicators that the group is required to achieve in order to maintain Nama’s support.
The accounts show that directors’ remuneration in 2011 was €810,339, down from €2.9 million the previous year.
The company had an average of 20 employees during the year, at a cost of €2.48 million, which works out as an average salary of €124,000. The previous year the company had an average of 22 employees at a cost of €3.9 million, an average of €177,000.
The company is owned by an Isle of Man entity that is, in turn, owned by an unlimited Irish company, Ballymore Properties, which is the ultimate parent. Unlimited companies do not publish accounts. However, an auditor’s report filed for Ballymore last year said the company’s principal assets comprised a “development property and tangible fixed-asset portfolio” with a “carrying value” of €1.81 billion. This compared to a carrying value of €2.39 billion in 2009.
Last month it emerged that Ballymore was selling its stake in a development in Wood Wharf, London, and was to hand over the €45 million it was due to reap from the deal to Nama.
