Forterra’s Barrett and Ronan say thanks for the cash
At least from a real estate perspective, the long running saga of Treasury China Trust/Forterra came to a close this week when Hong Kong-based real estate developer Nan Fung announced the completion of its acquisition of shares in Forterra trust and related assets from the former directors of Treasury Holdings.
According to astatement from Nan Fung, the company successfully acquired 29.98 percent of Forterra Trust, and 100% of the issued equity of Oriental Management Services Limited, the parent company of Forterra Real Estate Pte Ltd (Trustee-Manager to Forterra Trust) and Treasury Holdings (Shanghai) Property Management Co., Ltd (Property Manager to Forterra Trust) for a consideration of S$203,439,600.
The deal was initially announced in late July and followed many months of struggle between creditors seeking to take back the assets and executives of the company apparently determined to mine carcass of the bankrupt firm for personal gain.
The acquisition of the Forterra shares was performed through Nan Fung’s wholly owned subsidiary, New Precise Holdings Ltd, while the buy-out of Oriental Management Services was executed through another Nan Fung subsidiary name Lucky Token Investments. According to the statement, Richard Barrett, former director of Forterra and Treasury Holdings received Euros 17,466,813 for Oriental Management Services.
The sale of the shares in the trust, as well as the associated trustee management and property management firms has been the subject of considerable controversy centering on a series of transactions engineered by the former directors of Treasury Holdings, Richard Barrett and Johnny Ronan, who apparently sold themselves the Irish parent company’s assets at a considerable discount after receiving a multi-million dollar bail-out from the Irish government, and before selling these assets onward to Nan Fung.
With the completion of these transactions, Richard Barrett and Rory Williams resigned from their positions on the board of Forterra Real Estate, and Nan Fung is now the largest unit-holder in the trust.
According to reports in the Irish press, Barrett and Ronan will pay themselves a commission of Euros 40 million each before turning over the other proceeds of the sale as part of a settlement with the creditors of the now bankrupt Treasury Holdings.
Nan Fung is one of the largest privately owned property developers in Hong Kong, and the company’s major business activities are real estate development and investment, construction, property management and financial investment. In addition to Hong Kong, Nan Fung has investments in the People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand.
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