A Johnny Ronan firm involved in a long running legal dispute concerning €1m Harry Clarke stained glass windows at Bewley’s Cafe on Grafton Street in Dublin recorded post tax losses of €33.17m last year.
New accounts filed by RGRE Grafton Ltd show that €9.45m of last year’s €33.17m post tax loss concerned receivership costs.
Last month, the Ronan Group confirmed that the company had emerged out of receivership as part of a deal that allowed the Ronan Group take back what it called “the jewels in the crown” of the portfolio, namely: 70 Grafton Street, home to PTSB and City Break Apartments, and 78-79 Grafton Street, the location of Bewley’s Café, in Dublin 2.
A note attached to the new accounts for RGRE Grafton Ltd show that included in the €33.17m loss was a €15.54m loss on the disposal of investment properties and a latent Capital Gains Tax (CGT) charge of €4.5m.
The loss also takes account of a €2.9m gain in the value of the property portfolio.
The note states that the company owes €38.59m to a credit institution and €67.25m to group companies of which €39.75m is reflected as subordinated loans.
The note adds that in November 2023, as a result of high interest rates and a significant decrease in commercial property values, which gave rise to bank covenant issues, the directors invited its senior lenders, the Bank of Ireland to appoint a receiver over the secured assets.
The note states that during 2024, the receiver marketed the company’s investment properties for sale and following this process two properties were sold for €18.45m.
The note states that in addition, the company acquired a property in 2024 for €10.3m from a company within the same corporate group and subsequently sold it to a third party.
The note states that the “combined sale proceeds were used to part repay the senior lender’s loans and pay receiver and sales costs”.
The note states that in November 2024, the receiver entered into an agreement with another entity within the same corporate group for the sale of the company’s shares.
It states: “Upon completion, the company had no further obligations to its previous lenders and successfully exited receivership.”
The directors believe that following the completion of the share sale, the new financing arrangement, cessation of receivership the company will be able to meet its obligations as they fall due.
The book value of the company’s investment properties at the start of 2024 totalled €61.19m and was valued at €30.1m at the end of December 2024.
This was after disposals of €44.2m during the year and additions of €10.3m and the €2.9m gain in book value.
In February, the Supreme Court agreed to hear another appeal over the ownership of the Harry Clarke stained glass windows in Bewley’s Cafe in Grafton Street, Dublin.
It followed a 2-1 decision of the Court of Appeal (CoA) last July that all six of the windows belong to the owner of the premises, RGRE Grafton Ltd.
A dissenting judgment found that two of the windows were owned by Bewley’s and the other four were “tenant’s fixtures”.
That decision differed from a 2023 High Court decision that only four of the windows belonged to RGRE while the other two were the property of the tenant, Bewley’s Café Grafton Street (BCGS) Ltd and its subsidiary Bewley’s Ltd.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
