Troubled Dublin-based financial firm Structured Credit Company (SCC) will continue to have the protection of the High Court until September 5th.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy decided yesterday to continue until then the interim examinership he put in place last Monday and he directed that the winding-up petition granted by Ms Justice Mary Irvine on Friday, August 17th, be brought forward for hearing on the same day.
Edward Bowers, chief executive of SCC, succeeded in having the examiner appointed after Japanese banking giant Nomura International had sought to have the company put into liquidation.
Nomura had been granted an order by Ms Justice Irvine appointing Simon Coyle as provisional liquidator.
The legal propriety of which court order will stand will be argued on September 5th.
Bernard Dunleavy, counsel for Nomura, said that, in the event of the court deciding not to confirm the appointment of the interim examiner, the winding-up petition would then be heard.
An independent accountant's report was handed into court yesterday and will now be furnished to all SCC's trading partners. If they are taking a position in relation to that report, they will have to deliver any sworn affidavits by close of business next Friday.
Last Monday, Mr Bowers, in an affidavit grounding his application for the appointment of an interim examiner, had told the court that the provisional liquidator, Mr Coyle, had called together SCC staff on the day he had been appointed, August 17th, and had sent them home without pay pending the making of a winding-up order.
He said that Mr Coyle had taken back from all staff members the keys to the building. Because of this, neither the directors nor the staff of SCC had access to the company's books, records, e-mail traffic and all other items housed in or operated from the offices. He said that Mr Coyle had also secured the company's bank accounts so that no payments could be made by the company.
Mr Bowers said Mr Coyle's actions had been prejudicial to SCC's efforts to seek to have an interim examiner appointed.
Gary McCarthy, counsel for Mr Coyle, told the court that this was not true. Several staff members had remained with Mr Coyle in the company's office until 7.30pm on August 17th and had taken their laptops home with them. They had not been denied access to books and records. He said Mr Coyle had been given specific powers by the court to do certain things. All Mr Coyle had done as an officer of the court was to carry out those functions.
The court has heard that SCC, which had fallen victim to a deterioration in the value of credit securities, had raised $125 million (€91 million) in fresh capital from its backers in an effort to rescue the business, which has liabilities of $438 million.
