Penneys bound for Bray, the future of the GPO and a new broadband delay Seen & Heard: Hospitality fit-outs, Quinlan bankruptcy case and crispy business
about an hour ago
A Penneys employee prepares the shopfront of its Mary Street store ahead of the May reopening. The chain is set to take a unit in a new Bray shopping centre. Photograph: Tom Honan/The Irish Times.
Penneys will take a unit at Bray Central, a new shopping centre being built off the town’s main street by Paddy McKillen Jr’s Oakmount, reports the Sunday Times. The fast fashion retailer is likely to occupy one of the centre’s three anchor units, it says.
NAMA Shrugs Again
By Frank Connolly (November edition, Village)
NAMA Chief Executive, Brendan McDonagh, appearing before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC), failed to deliver a credible explanation as to how the agency handled the disposal of a lucrative portfolio of loans which was sold at a significant loss.
The Committee was convened to discuss the investigation by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Seamus McCarthy, into the dis- posal in 2012 by NAMA of Project Nantes, which was part of the larger Avestus portfolio. Avestus included valuable properties in Europe and the US which in turn were part of the loans of former Revenue Commissioner, Derek Quinlan and the Quinlan Partnership.
Signage from the Anglo Irish Bank headquarters in St Stephen s Green, Dublin is removed.Photo by Damien Eagers
FitzPatrick resigned as chairman in ignominy. The word “disgraced” was routinely affixed to his name. Early on in the crash, he became a lightning rod for public anger.
Drumm, who fled to the United States, was the biggest name of three Anglo executives to end up in jail after the bank’s collapse.
FitzPatrick was ultimately acquitted of all charges against him at the Dublin Central Criminal Court, but he was later fined €25,000 and banned from practising as an accountant at a professional tribunal.
Back in their Celtic Tiger heyday, the two leading figures at Anglo Irish Bank, David Drumm and Seán FitzPatrick, were feted as heroes in the world of high finance in Dublin.
Santander s Madrid HQ
Glenn Maud, an investor who during the last boom bought some of the world’s most expensive buildings, has been declared bankrupt after losing a near seven-year court battle.
The bankruptcy order comes after a complex legal battle involving the Libyan Investment Authority, Maud’s former joint venture partner Derek Quinlan and fellow boom-time property investor Robert Tchenguiz. The case centred around the ownership of Santander’s Madrid HQ, one of the world’s most valuable and highly leveraged property assets.
A judge found against Maud in his battle in June, and an appeal against the decision came to naught, leading to the November bankruptcy order. Maud declined to comment on the order.