TRADING in the new McInerney Holdings shares will begin on January 6th, and trading in McInerney Properties, the original debt ravaged company, will cease on December 31st. The existing shareholders of McInemey Properties will end up with 4.5 per cent of the new holding company, but this can rise to 20 per cent if they take up their full entitlement to shares under a crawback in the current pricing of shares.

The High Court hearing which sanctioned the scheme of arrangement for McInerney Properties plc was told the company had lost £55 million over five years to the end of December 1993. These losses were primarily on British property development and house building and leisure developments in Spain and Portugal. A number of companies had been put in receivership or liquidation, but the group was now trading at a small profit on its core activities. However, the accrued debts threatened to cause the group's collapse, the court was told. The scheme of arrangement was granted under section 201(3) of the Companies Act, 1963.