Builder Mick Bailey has closed his property development business in England, appointing liquidators to a UK company that owed £61 million (€70.55 million) to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).
Mr Bailey signed a resolution winding up Willsgrove Developments one month ago. The company previously had a registered office at Telford, Shropshire, and a business address in the same location in Swords, Dublin, as his Bovale Developments group.
A statement of affairs for Willsgrove on July 16th said company assets were subject to a £61 million fixed charge from Nama, the State “bad bank” set up at the height of the financial crisis to clear soured bank loans from Irish banks.
Willsgrove had €34,138 in assets just before liquidation, leaving an estimated total deficiency of £61.36 million. Liquidators Milan Vuceljic and Michael Solomons are based at John Street, London.
Mr Bailey declined to comment on the winding up of the business in England. He had no comment when asked whether Willsgrove’s Nama liabilities would be met by other parts of business group.
Bovale realised some €44.6 million in February from the sale of a large land bank near the M50 motorway. The 36.9 hectares (91.4-acre) site, known as the Dublin Central Logistics Park, was sold to three buyers, among them the Central Bank of Ireland.
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The company previously realised some €50 million from the sale of the 47.92-hectare (118.40 acre) Killamonan Business Park to Iput Real Estate.
There was no comment from Nama on any aspect of its dealings with Mr Bailey. The bad bank is itself scheduled to wind down its operations by the end of the year.
Willsgrove’s last annual accounts, for 2023, said the business disposed of its remaining property that year. Nama loan facilities had expired and had not been formally renewed, the document stated.
Bank loans and accrued interest were owed to Nama and secured by “unlimited personal guarantees” from Mr Bailey, the accounts stated.
Mr Bailey resumed full control of Bovale last December after a decade-long hiatus in which he was disqualified as a company director for seven years in 2014.
With his brother Tom Bailey he set up Bovale the early 1980s, going on to rank among the biggest landowners in the State.
The brothers made a €22.17 million tax settlement in 2006, the State’s largest.
In 2013, the High Court disqualified the brothers from acting as company directors after finding they were guilty of “particularly serious” misconduct and fraud. Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan referred to the brothers’ “systematic falsification” of books of account and a €6 million understatement of their gross remuneration over two years in the 1990s.
Bovale’s legal status as an unlimited company means it is not required to make public filings of its financial accounts.
However, an October 2024 audit report by KPMG warned of “material uncertainty” over Bovale’s ability to continue as a going concern.
“The group and company’s loan facilities with its lenders, the National Asset Management Agency, have expired and have not been formally renewed,” KPMG said then.
“The directors are in ongoing discussions with Nama, the funding provider. While progress has been made during the year, the loans have not yet been formally renewed.”
Willsgrove, the UK company, incurred a pretax loss of £817,000 in 2023 after generating £3 million from the sale of its last UK property.
Last November the company said the directors planned to liquidate the company as soon as possible. “Approval has been requested from Nama to commence the liquidation process,” it said then.