By: Michael O’FarrellÂ
Investigations Editor
BENEATH the glass atrium of 11-12 St James Square in London’s West End, a semi-naked burlesque dancer is gyrating in a tin bath to a swinging stripper soundtrack – much to the delight of those present.
Against the velvet curtain backdrop, floor staff weave through the crowd of property developers and party people with chilled champagne and cocktails. It is autumn 2006 – the pinnacle of the property boom – and for Sligo-born Deirdre Foley, the daring launch party is about to prove a startling success.
Many West End office developments were launched in the boom, often with glitzy parties, but Ms Foley’s firm, D2 Private, went all out – and it worked.
Soon afterwards, Ms Foley and her D2 co-owner, David Arnold, rented the property for a worldrecord rent of £140/sq.ft.
Last night, the controversy about her most recent acquisition – Clerys on O’Connell Street – continued unabated, even as it emerged that her new firm, Natrium, had agreed to Employment Minister Ged Nash’s request for a meeting to discuss the concerns of protesting employees and concessionaires, perhaps as early as this week. His spokeswoman said: ‘While Mr Nash welcomes this response, he repeats his call for Natrium to meet the workers and the concession holders also.’ Clerys is a return to high-stakes deals for Ms Foley. During the boom, D2 controlled a London portfolio worth more than €1.5bn and was the go-to investment manager of many of Ireland’s top names.
The British magazine Property Week has since described her – as recently as 2013 – as one of the top five businesswomen in the sector.
Little is known about her private life but among published reports it is claimed she drives a Porsche Boxter and ‘enjoys clay pigeon shooting and live shoots’.
Unlike some of her peers, she does not appear to seek trophy homes or other overt trappings of success – though she is perfectly adept at moving in such circles when it comes to piecing together a deal. She has been doing so now through boom and bust for almost 20 years.
Originally from a farming background in Sligo, the 43-year old began her career in 1992 with KPMG, where she trained as an accountant.
She then spent a year with GE Capital before joining Quinlan Private, the investment vehicle of Derek Quinlan, who is reputed to have described her as the ‘brightest financier I have ever come across’.
But having learned from Quinlan, Foley was determined to go out on her own and after six years she set up D2 with David Arnold.
Arnold – by far the more outgoing of the two – had been behind successful developments such as Central Park in Leopardstown and fitted neatly into the jet set. Foley, meanwhile, put in the hard work behind the scenes, becoming known as a formidable negotiator, widely respected in Britain and Ireland.
During the boom, D2’s investors included Late Late Show presenter Gay Byrne, Senator Feargal Quinn and former attorney general Dermot Gleeson. At one point, the firm was rumoured to be considering a flotation and spoke of plans to grow its portfolio to £5bn.
But fast forward to the dawn of Nama and the principles of D2 Private – thanks to unsustainable loans from Anglo – were among the most prominent names to be forced to work with the bad debts agency.
In recent years, all their prized London assets have been sold one by one. The offices at 11-12 St James Square are now owned by a Malaysian pension fund.
It emerged that the Nama official handling the loans on the property, Paul Hennigan, left the State agency to work for the British firm that brokered the deal, prompting controversy about the ‘revolving door’ between private investment firms and the experts working for Ireland’s bailout bank. It was reported at the time that the deal saw 100% of D2’s loans paid off in full.
Ms Foley’s problems did not stop there. In 2011, a company associated with D2 Private, D2 Property Management, was placed into receivership by Bank of Scotland, which was owed €11.8m.
Ms Foley and Arnold are now out of Nama with the last of their toxic loans now settled. A Nama spokesman said he could not comment on whether the loans associated with the pair were paid off at full value or whether Nama simply broke even.
They have gone their separate ways, too, with Mr Arnold – the father of actress Leigh Arnold – resigning in May 2013 and launching a High Court case against Ms Foley in September 2013.
It’s not clear what the case is about but the D2 Private accounts filed for the previous year reflected some troubling issues – including a €2.4m discrepancy that caused concern for auditors KPMG.
‘Information relating to the accrual of €2,478,069 has not been provided to us,’ KPMG’s audit reads. ‘We have not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion. Accordingly, we do not express an opinion on the financial statements.’ What caused the discrepancy is unknown. But the following year’s accounts did achieve a healthy audit and included a note to explain that €2.1m in ‘provisions’ had been overstated the previous year.
Now fully in control of D2, Ms Foley is cleansed of her Nama debt, back in her auditors’ favour, back in credit thanks to AIB and very much back in business. That’s something 400 workers in Clerys learned with a bang this week when D2 partnered Cheyne Capital to buy the historic department store.
In Mr Arnold’s place, Ms Foley has surrounded herself with family. Her fellow director – though not owner – at D2 and other firms is now Brendan Foley, a Cork-based relative two years her senior who describes himself as a ‘scientific officer’ on company filings.
Previously involved in the Environmental Protection Agency, Mr Foley is also listed as a REPS scheme assessor for farmers.
The Clerys deal, Ms Foley’s new start, has catapulted her into more limelight than anything she did before, including going into Nama. The insensitive handling of the deal has attracted a different press reaction than she may have been used to. However, Ms Foley’s decision not to comment publicly at all as politicians, employees and unions frothed at the bit this week is true to form.
For despite D2 Private’s 2006 burlesque extravaganza, Ms Foley is overwhelmingly private, understated, work-orientated, determined and focused – traits that have served her well.
But after this week, Ms Foley will, rightly or wrongly, be known to the public as the woman who locked 400 workers out of their jobs under the very shadow of Jim Larkin.
