Sammon Contracting: the inside story of an Irish corporate fatality

Debt funding of €15m was needed, but Japanese bank would only stump up €10m

The Maynooth Education Campus site in Co Kildare

Court-appointed examiner Michael McAteer engaged in last-ditch shuttle diplomacy between lenders and contractors for two weeks in May to strike a deal to save the ailing Sammon Contracting Group. It didn’t work.

Instead, after a combination of indecision by the banks and feet-dragging by the banks, funds and the public private partnership (PPP) company set up to deliver a bundle of schools projects, McAteer was forced to apply to the court to liquidate ...