SOLICITOR NOEL Smyth’s Alburn Real Estate UK is to be put into receivership by Rothschild, ending his efforts to regain command of the heavily indebted property portfolio which has breached a number of its borrowing covenants.
The move by Rothschild follows the failure on Tuesday of Alburn, which owns 47 offices, warehouses and other properties, to meet a demand from the bank for accelerated repayment of approximately £200 million (€250 million), including interest.
The 25 offices owned by the property company are valued at £94.5 million, while up to a dozen industrial warehouses are valued at £22.1 million. Two shops are worth £3 million, and the Waterdale shopping centre in Doncaster is valued at just under £10 million.
In a statement to the stock exchange, Rothschild said that Alburn had “indicated its willingness to work with the loan servicer, receivers and administrators in their efforts to maximise recoveries on behalf of the company’s bondholders”.
Last September, Mr Smyth sought to persuade three lenders, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank and the Co-operative Bank, to extend the life of its debt by three years and agree to incentive management fees.
The company, registered in Jersey, is owned by Mr Smyth and his wife, Anne-Marie. He argued in September that a longer maturity for the debt would allow time for the property market to stabilise and offer the prospect of repaying 25 per cent more of the debt. The £130 million valuation placed on the company’s assets and put against the debt and a junior loan held by the Co-operative Bank takes the securitised loan-to-value ratio to 142 per cent and the whole loan to value at 151 per cent, against covenants of 125 per cent and 135 per cent, respectively.
Last night, Rothschild, which is the servicer for the loans, said it had allowed time for the junior lender to appoint a special servicer, but this had not proved to be possible: “It is thought now that this is the best way to move forward,” a spokesman told The Irish Times.
Rothschild disputed earlier reports that 80 per cent of Alburn’s portfolio is to be sold within eight months, saying that the “core advice” has been that the properties should be sold off over time: “This is not a fire-sale,” the spokesman said.
The decision has been “well-flagged”, according to Rothschild, which pointed to a statement in December where it said it would “take appropriate enforcement steps and pursue a managed sell down of the assets, in order to comply” with regulations.
Two receivers for the properties will be appointed drawn from a list of four Savills staff, Julian Clarke, Kevin Mersh, Matthew Nagle, or Neal Morrison, while administrators will be appointed to deal with those located in Scotland.
