The Special Liquidators continue to implement an orderly and efficient wind down of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Limited (in Special Liquidation) in accordance with the provisions of the IBRC Act and the instructions issued by me under that Act.
By February 2015, loans with a par value of €21.7 billion had been prepared, brought to market and ultimately sold through a series of sales processes which have delivered a very positive result in maximising the return to the creditors of IBRC, including the State.
A significant amount of work remains to complete the liquidation of IBRC including, among other tasks:
- migrating activities and servicing of sold assets to their new owners and servicers;
- managing and realising value for the remaining loan book with a par value of €3.6bn;
- liquidating or selling the remaining subsidiary interests;
- continuing to manage significant levels of ongoing litigation and new litigation as it arises; and
- managing the operational wind down of IBRC's infrastructure in line with the continued liquidation.
Further detail regarding the progress of the liquidation and remaining tasks to completion has been provided as part of the Progress Update Report which was released by the Special liquidators on 13 March 2015 and is available on the Department of Finance website.
As the Special Liquidators maximise the proceeds of the liquidation, it is important that they have a comprehensive view of the creditors who ultimately may be entitled to these proceeds. To this end, the Special Liquidators have published advertisements and written to those known creditors in order to finalise their claims in the liquidation. Creditors in the UK and Ireland had until 31 March 2015 to submit their claims and those creditors in the US have until 31 May 2015.
Once all claims have been submitted, they will be reviewed in detail and adjudicated on by the Special Liquidators. In order to finalise this process, further information may be sought from some creditors in order to validate their claim.
The Special Liquidators are unable to comment at this stage both on the level of proceeds that will ultimately be generated from the liquidation and on the level of valid creditor claims that will ultimately be received in respect of the liquidation. It is the balance between the proceeds generated and level of valid claims that will ultimately determine the dividend to which each creditor may be entitled.
The ultimate level of dividend paid, if any, to each creditor cannot be known until such time as all loan assets are sold, the total level of adjudicated creditors is finalised and the other contingent creditor claims which may crystallise, including those from litigation, are known.
For the payment of proceeds from the liquidation, unsecured creditors will rank in priority to the holders of subordinated debt. The priority for the distribution of assets under the Companies Acts is generally:
1. Costs and expenses of the ongoing liquidation;
2. Preferential creditors, including certain taxes and employee and pension claims arising prior to the date of liquidation (these claims are certain to be paid in full);
3. Amounts owing to NAMA under the Facility Deed acquired from the Central Bank, which were secured by a floating charge over the bank s assets (these claims have been fully repaid and the floating charge has been released).
4. Unsecured creditors, including:
- Debts owing to the Minister/NTMA under ELG
- Debts owing to the Deposit Guarantee Scheme
- Unguaranteed debt/depositors
- Unknown, including:
(1) Local authority development bonds
(2) Suppliers / other "normal" unsecured creditors
(3) Employees that are not preferential creditors
(4) Contingent creditors and other potential costs principally relating to litigation, etc.
5. Subordinated creditors
6. Members of the company - the Minister currently holds 100% of all shares and preference shares in the company.
