Sunday, August 09, 2015

As the deluge subsides

-Sunday Independent (Ireland) --

Former Leinster rugby player and businessman Paul Hennebry has exited National Asset Management Agency (Nama) by refinancing his loans through the mezzanine fund backed by Cardinal Capital and Wilbur Ross, the Sunday Independent can reveal.

Hotelier Hennebry, the president of Terenure College rugby club, is now on the verge of acquiring the Citi Hotel beside the Central Bank on Dublin's Dame Street with his brothers Michael and Barry, with the transaction set to close next week. ...  Cardinal is the brainchild of Nigel McDermott, who founded National City Stockbrokers with financier Dermot Desmond, and Nick Corcoran, a founding director of Zurich Capital Markets. As well as the joint venture with Ross, it has another joint venture with US asset management giant the Carlyle Group, which is designed to invest in Irish SMEs - both north and south of the border. That fund has invested in chocolate and dessert maker Lily O'Brien's, meat and ready-meals company Carroll Cuisine, and payments business Payzone.

Work through the list: Celtic Tiger project started by ex rugby player, on prime site next to Central Bank, taken over by state bad loans agency during the property crash, but now control regained by the original developer helped by veterans of the Irish financial sector with enough links to major US investors to mobilize capital and capacity.

It's almost as if the Irish property crash never happened at all!

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