Court battle costs Alliance £500,000
N BROWN board member Nigel Alliance’s property company Cringle Corporation is facing a £500,000 bill for legal costs after a long-running court case over profits from a development joint venture.
The firm has been presented with the bill following a dispute which concluded last year against Realty Estates – a company owned by Mr Alliance’s nephew, Yousef Tishbi
The two firms had set up a joint venture company to redevelop the former Barnes Hospital site off Kingsway in Cheadle, with Mr Alliance providing the capital and Mr Tishbi handling delivery of the project. It was successfully sold on in 2007 for £10m – generating a profit of more than £3m.
However, a long-running dispute then ensued about deductions made for various expenses and interest, with proceeds initially beginning in 2008 before eventually concluding with a ruling being handed down by Judge Mr Justice Norris in April 2011.
The ruling has left Mr Alliance’s company liable for “third-party legal costs” expected to be worth around £500,000, according to newly-filed accounts for his company, Cringle Corporation.
Accounts for the year to March 31, 2011, show that the property investment firm saw pre-tax profits decline by 10% to £445,875 despite a 5% increase in income to £2.1m.
The value of the company’s property portfolio remained unchanged at £13.2m, but the profit achieved meant the overall value of its net assets increased by 8% to £3.9m.
Notes to the company’s accounts prepared by Mr Alliance state that the “current economic conditions create uncertainty, particularly over the availability of bank finance in the in the foreseeable future”.
It has completed its own refinancing since the year end, though, agreeing new loans worth £5.5m with its trio of banks Bank Hapoalim, Brown Shipley and Lloyds TSB.
