Treasury Holdings

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Treasury Holdings
TypeProperty development
Founded1989 (1989)
Founder
  • Richard Barrett
  • Johnny Ronan
DefunctOctober 9, 2012 (2012-10-09)
Headquarters
Dublin
,
Ireland
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • John Bruder (Managing Director)
  • Rory Williams (Director)
  • Niall O’Buachalla (Group financial director)

Treasury Holdings was an Irish property development company headed by Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett. The company, which was insolvent with a huge amount of debt, was wound up in October 2012.

History[]

Treasury Holdings was formed in 1989 with its first serious development being the Treasury Building on Grand Canal Street on Dublin’s southside. This building houses the National Asset Management Agency and the National Treasury Management Agency.

Developments[]

Google Docks Building, Dublin formerly named Montevetro when it was acquired by Google for €100m in 2011
  • In November 2006, Real Estates Opportunities PLC (the Channel Islands-based property group in which Treasury Holdings had a 60% stake) purchased Battersea Power Station and the surrounding land for €532 million (£400 million).[1][2] On 30 November 2011, it was officially announced that the REO scheme had collapsed with the debt called in by its lenders and creditors, putting the site in administration.
  • It acquired part of the Stillorgan Shopping Centre where it became embroiled in a long-running planning battle.[3]
  • Blackrock Baths were acquired in 2006[4]
  • In 2007 its ambitious €60m plans to develop a state-of-the-art shopping centre and residential complex in the centre of Sligo were turned down by Sligo Borough Council.
  • The Convention Centre Dublin, conceived as part of the overall Spencer Dock Development, which opened in September 2010.
  • The Montevetro building and others at Grand Canal Dock. The Montevetro building was sold to Google in January 2011.[5]

Demise[]

In October 2012 the High Court appointed liquidators to Treasury Holdings and 16 related companies. The move followed a decision by Treasury not to resist a winding-up application by one of its banks, KBC, over a debt of €55m. Treasury had debts of €2.7bn, €1.7bn of which was owed to the National Asset Management Agency.[6]

In January 2013 liquidators were appointed to Real Estates Opportunities PLC. REO in turn managed the Opera property fund, a collection of 16 Irish properties including the Merchants Quay shopping centre in Cork and the Stillorgan shopping centre in Dublin. Some of the loans from this fund were sold to US investor Northwood.

Richard Barrett now spends much of his time in China,[7] and has since gone on to found Bartra,[8] an international investment firm which primarily facilitates the movement of Chinese capital into Europe whereby Chinese agencies operating under the aegis of the CCP gain control of key infrastructural projects overseas. These include but are not limited to private property & commercial real estate, but have also extended into areas such as essential healthcare facilities and social housing. (Fomerly, Treasury Holdings had established the Chinese real estate company CREO, which partnered with the firm Shanghai Industrial Investment Company (SIIC), a window-company of the communist municipal government, in projects including residential and commercial developments.)

This has been a matter of some concern in the EU, who since October 2020 have set up a Framework for Foregn Direct Investment Screening. However, the Irish Government has refused to establish at a national level the kind of legislation sought by the EU Framework.

Barrett has claimed his company will provide between one third and sixty percent of Ireland's social housing. These are to be built by Bartra and leased by the Irish State from Bartra acting as intermediaries of their clients - all Chinese-sanctioned investors including high ranking figures in the CCP.

Barrett has given figures in the hundreds of thousands for the number of housing units he deems are required (an astonishing figure given that Ireland's popolution of circa 4.7 million are currently housed in about two million homes). Thus the Chinese government will indirectly become the biggest landlord in the Irish State.

Barrett has similar ambitions for another of his operations, Bartra Health, a wing of his company which operates from its base in Hong Kong and has begun implementing its plans to become one of Ireland's "largest healthcare providers", by building and operating numerous nursing homes for the elderly across Ireland; again, on behalf of its Chinese investors.

Richard Barrett now resides in China

References[]

  1. ^ "Iconic landmark is sold for £400m". BBC News. 30 November 2006. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  2. ^ "REO buys London's Battersea power station". RTÉ News. 30 November 2006. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  3. ^ http://www.shopping-centre.co.uk/news/categoryfront.php/id/64/May.html[bare URL]
  4. ^ Green Party hosts public meeting on future of Blackrock Baths Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine. Ciarancuffe.com (2006-10-19). Retrieved on 2013-05-19.
  5. ^ Wall Street Journal
  6. ^ RTE News
  7. ^ "Key role for boom-era developer Barrett in €100m Chinese Goodbody bid". independent. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  8. ^ "Property Development Group Ireland". Bartra. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
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