Thank you Mr. Eastwood

[orangeman]

Hard times affecting everybody.

Eastwood firms in administration


Five property firms owned by the businessman Barney Eastwood have been placed into administration.

Mr Eastwood is best known for his bookmaking chain Eastwoods. He sold the chain, comprising of 54 shops, to Ladbrokes for a reported £135m in 2008.

He had also built up a significant property portfolio using borrowings from Anglo Irish Bank.

The most recent accounts from the firms suggest that they owed the bank more that £100m.

Anglo is now called the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) and most of its property loans have been moved into the Irish's governments "bad bank", the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

It is not clear whether NAMA or IBRC appointed the administrators.

The five companies involved are: Wildrose Properties, Wildrose Magheraleve, Wildrose Properties (3), Wildrose Properties (7) and Wildrose Properties (16).

Those companies are understood to own the Tower Centre in Ballymena, a large green field site near Lisburn and prominent commercial properties in Belfast city centre as well as assets in England.

Barney Eastwood was also a successful boxing promoter who worked with Barry McGuigan.

[Dougal Maguire]

Aye, but how much will it affect him? About a year or so ago The Irish News was full of Big Joe Kernan's property empire going bust, but he still seems to be selling houses to beat the band round our way