A judge in the United States has granted the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation’s liquidators the rights to the former Anglo Irish Bank’s American assets.
Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson, of KPMG in Dublin, have been granted the right to distribute $189 million in Anglo’s “reserved proceeds” in the US, along with all other assets.
The declaration by the court will make it easier for unsecured creditors of the former Anglo to recover assets. They include the Irish state, which is owed more than €1 billion.
The liquidators warned that the amount that can be recovered for unsecured creditors will not be known for some time, because of “substantial litigation” still left in the case.
In a statement to the Delaware bankruptcy court last month, Mr Wallace argued that they were mandated by Irish law to handle IBRC assets around the world and had overseen the liquidation of assets worth €16.9 billion, including those in the US. He said that the liquidators received 3,000 claims from IBRC creditors this year.
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The liquidators have paid preferential and secured creditors and are now processing those left unsecured.
Money owed to bondholders also make it difficult to assess whether any funds will be available to make distributions to remaining creditors, Mr Wallace said.
“The special liquidators undertook a global marketing and sales process in order to liquidate the remaining assets of IBRC, including those assets located within the United States, in order to apply the proceeds for the benefit of IBRC’s creditors, as mandated by the IBRC Act and applicable Irish law,” he said in a written statement to the court.
He also included a 205-page report, issued to Michael Noonan, the finance minister, in May last year showing the substantial work the IBRC has done to liquidate the company, including obtaining 3,500 property valuations and negotiating with 15,900 different borrower groups worldwide. He said that, as of May last year, the liquidators had brought €21.7 billion worth of IBRC loans to the market.
In his ruling Judge Christopher Sontchi said that he would authorise the liquidators to distribute IBRC’s US assets, including the $189 million in reserved proceeds, and that he was doing this in recognition of the powers placed in the liquidators by the Irish Companies Act 2014, the IBRC Act and previous rulings by the courts in Ireland.
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This year’s liquidator report showed that the IBRC had a remaining loan book of €3.7 billion and said the cost of liquidation had risen to €222.6 million.
The amount of money to be give to unsecured creditors “will not be known for a number of years” due to outstanding legal action, the report said.
Unsecured creditors’ final recovery depends on the outcome of a legal dispute between the family of the businessman Seán Quinn and IBRC.