Deirdre Foley's firm pumped nearly €2m into the company behind the Clerys buyout

DEIRDRE FOLEY, ONE of the main players in the Clerys sale that saw hundreds of people lose their jobs, loaned nearly €2 million to the company behind the controversial buyout.

Documents for the firm that owns the iconic Clerys building also show that the property was revalued just before it was sold – nearly doubling its pricetag to €31 million.

Accounts just released for Natrium, a joint venture made up of Irish investment group D2 Private and the UK-based Cheyne Capital Management, show that it received a loan from a company called FAM Assets last year.

That firm, which holds a 20% share in Natrium, is owned by Dublin-based property investor Foley, who is also the owner of D2 Private. FAM Assets and D2 Private share an address.

The records show that Foley’s firm loaned €1.9 million to Natrium during 2015. As of the end of the year, the balance due on the loan, which is to be repaid by June 2017, was €1.7 million.

The report also noted that a ‘fee’ of €600,000 is due to Foley’s subsidiary, and this is also set to be paid in June 2017 or earlier.

Deirdre Foley

Foley, who previously maintained a low profile, was thrust into the limelight after her part in the Clerys sale.

She has been fighting a High Court case against the Workplace Relations Commission over its seizure of a computer and documents from D2 Private’s offices during a probe into the store closure.

Sacked Clerys workers outside D2 Private's offices

A government report into the Clerys controversy earlier found that it would have been “preferable” if the deals that led to the store’s closure were illegal.

Those arrangements involved the liquidation of the store’s loss-making operating business, which employed Clerys staff, while the property was sold on to be redeveloped by Natrium.

Taxpayers were forced to pick up the tab for sacked workers’ redundancy benefits following the liquidation.

Prior to her involvement with Natrium and Clerys, Foley had a long-running history in the Irish property industry including several years with Quinlan Private, the investment vehicle of developer Derek Quinlan, which eventually folded during the financial crisis.

At the time of publication, Fora was yet to receive a response from D2 Private about the fee due to Foley or her loan.

D2 Private owner Deirdre Foley

Private Equity Real Estate ICAV, a vehicle controlled by the other Clerys buyers, Cheyne Capital, also loaned Natrium €10 million during the 2015 financial year. There was about €9 million outstanding on the total as of the end of the year.

OCS Properties, which owns the Clerys building and is turn held by Natrium, has flagged its intention to redevelop the Clerys site. An application for planning permission submitted to Dublin City Council would see the building redeveloped to include a hotel, offices, bars and shops.

Revalued

Accounts also filed for OCS Properties show that the site was revalued shortly before it was sold last June by US investment firm Gordon Brothers Group to the Natrium joint venture.

Gordon Brothers was the store’s owner when the Clerys business was split into two main companies – one in charge of its operations and the 460 people working in the store, and a second that oversaw the firm’s assets, including the prime O’Connell St site where the store was housed.

Clerys workers protesting following the store's closure

The operational business, OCS Operations, changed hands for a nominal €1 before it was liquidated. The property firm, OSC Properties, was sold for a reported €29 million and continued trading.

The accounts for OCS Properties show that the Clerys site was revalued just before it was sold.

At the start of 2015 OCS Properties had fixed assets worth €17.8 million. However, an independent revaluation of the property estimated that the “fair value of the underlying property assets” was actually €31 million, according to the accounts.

The valuation was carried out about two weeks before OCS Properties was sold.