Irish property developers Paddy McKillen (pictured) and Padraig Drayne are locked in a high court dispute over shares and stock in Coroin, the parent company of Maybourne Hotels.
McKillen is applying to discharge a stop notice secured by Drayne in March over the near 16% interest in Coroin that McKillen bought from Drayne for £14mn in 2007. The deal was financed with debt from Anglo Irish Bank.
McKillen claims Drayne has no beneficial interest in Coroin shares so was not entitled to the stop notice.
Drayne argues that McKillen has failed to meet the terms of the agreement reached between the parties in March 2007 by failing to redeem a charge in favour of Anglo Irish over the Jervis Street Car Park they co-own in Dublin by the deadline of May 2008.
He claims the 2007 agreement is a binding contract and that he has an option to re-purchase his interest in Coroin.
McKillen says he never signed the March 2007 agreement and that it was superseded by a written share sale agreement in June 2007.
McKillen is asking the high court to discharge the stop notice.
The Maybourne Hotel Group owned by Coroin comprises some of London’s leading hotels, including The Berkeley, The Connaught and Claridge’s.
McKillen is also seeking action against the Barclay brothers, who bought the £800m debt on the Maybourne Hotel Group from Nama.
That trial is set to take place next March.
