Castlehaven Finance: Will the Journey of O’Brien & O’Flynn Emerge As A Road Map for Homebuilders Exiting Nama?

Last week the Irish Examiner, which is not known for long form journalism, published a lengthy (2,700+ word) interview with brothers Denis and Dan O’Flynn who, together, form one of the most recognisable names in housebuilding in Cork, O’Brien & O’Flynn. This interview is the closest thing we have to a publicly available case study or road map for developers exiting Nama.

The headline ‘O’Brien & O’Flynn play their way back into the game’ is a nod to how the cut and thrust of Gaelic games have influenced the way these Castlehaven Finance-supported brothers go about their business.

The article/interview is worth reading in full to get a deep understanding of the legacy of the building company and how it was “targeted for takeover by Nama”: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-40047935.html

“It is little over a month since the men made Irish legal history by reclaiming their company, O’Brien & O’Flynn, from both receivership and liquidation at the same time, resurrecting a firm from the dead that had built close to 4,000 homes in Cork from 1976 to 2014…

With a banking system that teetered on the brink of collapse, an angry public demanding answers as to how the financial crash happened, and an increasingly unpopular Government staving off economic meltdown, property developers and multimillion-euro loans were targeted for Nama in the aftermath of late 2008. The National Asset Management Agency was set up in 2009, tasked with taking property development loans from Irish banks and weaving them into government purple debts bonds, aimed at opening up credit in the economy. O’Brien & O’Flynn brothers was one such company targeted for takeover by Nama, which deeply concerned them because of their belief that their business model was viable and could withstand the pressures of the financial climate caused by the 2008 crash.

Nama-associated company Nalm petitioned the High Court in July 2014 to appoint a provisional liquidator to O’Brien and O’Flynn, which it alleged was €71m in debt with just over half that in assets. The brothers staunchly disputed those figures, arguing that the assets were worth far more. Despite its attempts to show the court that the debts were not insurmountable and that it had a sound basis to trade its way out of debt with plans for further homebuilding, the firm could not avoid the receivership and liquidation order.

In 2014, the company they had built over almost 40 years, responsible for thousands of family homes in the likes of Ballincollig, Wilton, Mayfield, Passage West and Maryborough and Deerpark was gone…

Dan said: “It hurt me very personally, I’ll be honest about it. If you are honest, hard-working and do the best you can, you should win out afterwards.

“It was very hard, very painful and it hurt a lot, I can tell you that. I was the man on the sites. But deep down, I knew we had done our best.”

Denis was also devastated.

“We can survive without building. But of course, it was shattering. I was angry because I felt we had been wronged.

“The anger turns into determination and you never lose sight of those assets. We could have left it, but we loved housebuilding.  “We wanted what we had built back. So the planning and plotting began.”

‘Nobody believed you could get the company out of receivership and liquidation’

Late in 2018, Denis and Dan O’Flynn saw an opportunity, With the help of solicitor Patricia O’Brien and her team from BHK Solicitors, and Donal Keane from financial advisors Hyland Johnson Keane, the men attempted to do what had never been done before – bring the company back from both receivership and liquidation.

One company had come out of liquidation but none from receivership and liquidation.

The plan was persuasive enough for Castlehaven Finance to come on board to back the firm if it was successful…”

And we are delighted to say that it was successful and the Castlehaven Finance team are proud to have played a critical role in this landmark case for the development community in Ireland.

Best of luck to Dan, Denis and all at O’Brien & O’Flynn as they move ahead with plans for new developments across Cork City and county.

This interview is available in full at: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-40047935.html