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Reclusive developer Paddy McKillen attending yesterday's High Court action in London. Yui Mok/PA Wire

McKillen accuses brothers of acting 'unlawfully' in London hotel takeover

Reclusive developer Paddy McKillen accuses the Barclay brothers of acting illegally to win control of a luxury London hotel chain.

RECLUSIVE PROPERTY DEVELOPER Paddy McKillen has told the High Court in London that two billionaire brothers acted ‘dishonourably and unlawfully’ in trying to win control of some of London’s most luxurious hotels.

McKillen, who has previously been involved in Supreme Court action against NAMA in Ireland, accuses Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay of making payments to the wife of fallen Irish developer Derek Quinlan.

The Barclays acknowledge the payments, the Guardian reports, but insist that the payments – made after Quinlan’s empire collapsed following the Irish banking crisis – were helping his family “at their time of need” and were unrelated to their business affairs.

Quinlan had led a syndicate which had taken control of Coroin, which owns the five-star Connaught, Claridge’s and Berkeley hotels, using loans from Irish banks in 2004.

McKillen and the Barclays, twin brothers who also own the Ritz Hotel and the Daily Telegraph newspaper, were also investors in the group.

Quinlan’s debts were later taken over by NAMA, and last September were taken over by the Barclays in a deal worth €800 million to Ireland’s bad bank.

The Financial Times explains how McKillen told the court he had “pre-emption rights” to buy Quinlan’s shares if they were ever put up for sale – and suggested that the payments to Quinlan’s family were an unlawful way of encouraging Quinlan to allow the Barclays take over his stake.

The Daily Telegraph itself reports that the allegation was refuted by the Barclays’ barrister, who told the court: “Mr McKillen thought if he threw enough mud at my clients they might be prepared to settle. The truth is it is Mr McKillen who has behaved badly.”

The brothers further argue that McKillen was simply priced out of the battle for the chain, saying McKillen wanted to be the shareholder in a company worth nearly £1 billion but did not have the cash to back up his interest.

The case is likely to continue for several weeks.

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    Mute Mark Costello
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    Dec 6th 2022, 3:03 PM

    I’m more interested in how much it increased from 2021 to 2022 and more to the point from January 2020 to December 2022 ..

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    Mute Edward Natali
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    Dec 6th 2022, 5:25 PM

    It’s all so backwards. Energy providers are claiming the price increase is due to increased fuel costs, yet they are all reporting massive profit increases during the same period. Price gouging and war profiteering at it’s finest and the Government/Regulators are doing nothing about it.

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    Mute David Mc Cabe
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    Dec 6th 2022, 3:23 PM

    Does anyone think it will ever go back down in price again?

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    Mute Stephen Walshe
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    Dec 6th 2022, 3:28 PM

    @David Mc Cabe: never once up it’ll stay there.

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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Dec 6th 2022, 5:57 PM

    Go with the storage heater like David suggested. 1.5KW per hour would cost you your ESB rate per hour. Say your rate is 40 cents per KW (unit) then it would cost you 60 cents per hour to run it. If you had it on for 4 hours it would cost you €2.40.

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    Mute Julie
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    Dec 6th 2022, 3:42 PM

    Can someone advise, which is more cost efficient, a storage plug in heater or a fan heater? Thank you

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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Dec 6th 2022, 4:09 PM

    @Julie: Get the wattage off both units and I will run the calculations for you.

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    Mute David Mc Cabe
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    Dec 6th 2022, 4:46 PM

    @Julie: I think an oil storage plug in heater is better, fan heaters need to be always on and when switched off you notice the temp. drop within 5 min. Oil radiators will switch off when a set temp. is reached and switch back on if the temp. falls below a certain amount also keep dont go cold quickly after they switch off.

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    Mute Julie
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    Dec 6th 2022, 5:46 PM

    @David Corrigan: Thank you David, the fan is 2000 watts and the storage heater is 1.5kw

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    Mute Julie
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    Dec 6th 2022, 5:46 PM

    @David Mc Cabe: Thank you David!

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    Mute John Keane
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    Dec 6th 2022, 6:02 PM

    @Julie: @Julie: looks like the heater will use 25% less electricity over an hour and be on less because it stores a certain amt of heat. Keeping the heater on level 1 over an extended period is the way to use them.

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    Mute David Mc Cabe
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    Dec 6th 2022, 6:42 PM

    @Julie: I have one of the Oil Filled Radiators 1.5kw, it has 3 setting 700w, 800w and 1.5kw. It has a min – max temperature dial. I mostly just use the 800w setting with the temp turned about 60-70% full. (Large Double Bedroom) At this setting it will switch on for 15 min, and turn itself off for about 10 min. So using a full hour of electric power it is actually on for 1hr 40 mins. I believe the price for this was about 16c – 20c per hour. ( 1hr 40mins of actually being on consuming power)

    I only use the 1.5kw setting on the really colder days.

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    Mute Julie
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    Dec 7th 2022, 9:02 AM

    @David Mc Cabe: you are a star thank you!!

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    Mute Julie
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    Dec 7th 2022, 9:22 AM

    @John Keane: Thank you John

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