Johnny Ronan fights action to reclaim €150m on property portfolio

Johnny Ronan is fighting a rearguard action to reclaim his €150 million Dublin property portfolio as rivals close in on deals for the developer’s prized assets.

The properties — a mix of offices, retail units and apartments — are being sold individually, and many have gone sale agreed with different buyers in the past couple of weeks.

Property sources said that while Ronan had looked at a number of properties, he had not yet placed any successful bids. A spokesman for the businessman declined to comment last Friday.

The distressed portfolio was placed on the market in April by the receivers Mick McAteer and Nicholas O’Dwyer, of Grant Thornton. In June it was reported that Ronan was being backed by Landfair, a Swiss and British-based investment group led by Stefan Jaeger, in a bid for the entire lot of 11 assets.

Green Street News, a property website, reported last week that bids for the portfolio came in at about €100 million, considered too low by the receivers.

Davy Real Estate is thought to have agreed to buy the remaining shares of the three properties it co-owns. It has bought a 60 per cent share of Kilmore House in the north docks area of Dublin, which was guiding at €22 million. It is also looking to buy a 50 per cent share in St James House, a 1990-constructed building in Dublin 2, which was guiding at €4 million. The investor is also in play for a 24 per cent share in Percy Exchange in Dublin 4, also guiding at €4 million. Ronan is believed to still be in the bidding for the latter two properties.

Property sources said a deal for Connaught House, marketed for €80 million, fell through with advisers going back to the market last week to secure a buyer. Despite previous reports, MM Capital is not thought to be the buyer.

Green Street News reported that the Bewley’s Café site on Grafton Street was being bought by a private investor but not the Campbell family, who own Bewley’s. A French investor has agreed to pay circa €11 million for ­Kingram House, it said. Pat Crean, a developer, is also said to have gone to best bids on some of the assets.

Ronan decided to restructure his business and enter a consensual receivership process earlier this year. In 2022 he kept receivers from his door when he refinanced the portfolio with AIB and Bank of Ireland, paying off M&G Investments, a UK-based lender, in the process.

Ronan has owned many of the properties for more than two decades.

Separately, Fortress Investment Group, another lender of Ronan’s, placed five more of his properties on the market in February. They include sites in Dublin and Co Wicklow, and a Georgian office building on Fitzwilliam Square. It is not thought that Ronan bid for any of them.

The Grant Thornton receivers did not return requests for comment last Friday. Property agents JLL and Cushman & Wakefield also declined to comment.