Attention Dubai Clients of Larionovo and Profile

Solicitor, Anthony Joyce, has been in touch with the site to say that he is currently looking for clients of both Ennis based Larionovo and its Dubai based sister company, Profile.

Larionovo, of course, went into liquidation in November 2008, but its former clients are undeterred. They have now formed The Dubai Action Group to fight their corner against what they feel is the unjust way in which they have been treated. Developments in which worried investors bought include: Eagle Heights, Bermuda Views, Stadium Point and Profile Residences; all are developments within the landmark proposed Sports City project. Other developments in which investors had become involved include: International City, Snowdome Residences, 050 Waterfront and the Island of Ireland in the, now infamous, World development 20 minutes off the coast of the Emirate.

Such was the volume of property sold by Larionovo, the Group currently has 200 members signed up with a further 100 who have been in contact and shown an interest in joining. The Group is currently recruiting new members with a view to instigating legal action. The Group will close before any action is taken and no new members will then be allowed to join.

The group has appointed Joyce to undertake litigation on behalf of the purchasers in relation to parties involved in the projects both in Ireland and in Dubai. Readers of the blog will be aware that Joyce has experience in recovering funds for overseas property owners, having taken a high profile legal action against Irish agent Kuvera regarding developments it was promoting in India. In July, Joyce used the new facility in the Commercial Court to secure property assets, company shares and cash for the Kuvera Action Group just eight weeks after injunctions were issued. A legal action is also currently in motion against the indemnity insurance that covered Kuvera’s legal adviser, Seymour Major. Action in India is also progressing.

See here for further information on the Dubai action.

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Larionovo & Profile Clients Fear Money is Gone

A report in today's Irish Independent claims that investors in Ennis based Larionovo - which shut down a year ago - and its sister company in Dubai, Profile Properties LLC, fear that their investments are now gone forever.

From the piece:

"A group of small Irish investors who bought into a dream property scheme in Dubai now fear that as much as €20m of their money could be lost.

The Concerned Dubai Sports City Investors Group, which hopes to recruit hundreds of members, bought off-plan apartments through the now defunct Larionovo property agents. They are worried that as much as €20m - cash many hoped would fund their retirements - is caught up in Dubai.

The group is building up a war chest to help fund a campaign to retrieve their deposits.

...

A meeting of the group last week in the Citywest Hotel in Dublin heard that they have no idea if building work has even started on some apartments, such is the difficulty in getting information from developers. Some recently received letters telling them the project had been put 'on hold'."

The CEO of Dubai Sports City complex is U. Balasubramaniam (often referred to as Bala Subramanian or simply Bala), who can be heard here describing the progress of the project up to April 25th, 2007, at which stage he was quite bullish about the prospects of everything finishing on time.

According to the report above, however, the wheels would appear to have come off the wagon since that time as the credit crunch eventually hit Dubai with its full force. If you are to visit the Dubai Sports City website, however, you'd be hard pressed to tell that things were not as they should be.

The full article from the Irish Independent can be read here.

Larionovo Goes into Receivership

The Irish overseas property industry will be left reeling by another high profile casualty of the current economic crisis and the severe downturn in the Irish economy.

Well known Clare based overseas property agent, Larionovo, shut its doors for the last time on Tuesday evening and let go its 11 staff members based in Ennis and Baggot St., Dublin. The company was formed seven years ago by brother-in-law pairing Raymond Norton and Andrew Brett and had sold vast quantities of product in areas as diverse as Dubai, Hungary, Spain, France, India and Portugal.

The company was well known for its high profile campaigns on TV, radio and in the press, taking the sale of overseas property by an Irish company to a new level. Unfortunately, under current financial realities the company's business model would appear to have become redundant.

It's most high profile market was undoubtedly Dubai, where it strongly marketed developments in Dubai Sports City. The company featured on the front page of the property section of the Sunday Independent, edited by John O'Keeffe, on an extremely regular basis. It is generally accepted that the company had many hundreds of Irish buyers.

Larionovo has spent a good deal of time in the limelight recently for the wrong reasons. It was involved in somewhat of a furore back in July when the Irish Independent published an article declaring "... Larionova, the biggest and most high profile of the Irish foreign property agents, is also to shut up shop, amid difficulties getting payment from developers." Larionovo denied the allegations very strenuously and an apology was forthcoming from the newspaper but it's goose has since been cooked. No doubt the Indo will be anxious to report on the current chain of events.

The company was also the main Irish agent for Martinsa-Fadesa, the giant Spanish builder which filed for bankruptcy during the summer.

Larionovo has also been the source of much frustration, vented liberally on the Joe Duffy show last week, with relation to several projects in India that it decided to abandon. Purchasers in the Green Valley, Hill View and Cape Corinth projects, by developer Sigrun, have been promised refunds of their initial deposits, but many have not materialised yet and investors are, understandably, getting very worried. The subject is also the cause of much posting on various threads on the Ask About Money forum.

Larionovo's demise should not actually make much difference to clients who bought through them, as the company didn't build any property. All contracts should be with the developers from whom the property was bought and so, presuming the developers are capable of building the projects, should still complete. Clients will, however, obviously not receive any supplementary services which might have been provided by the agent such as furnishing, rentals, etc. There is also the worry that, with the agent now out of the loop, Sigrun may decide not to refund deposits collected by it. Only time will tell.

The receiver appointed is Grant Thornton. The message at time of posting, being shown on the Larionovo homepage is:

"Please be advised that Paul McCann was appointed Provisional Liquidator of Larionovo Limited on Tuesday November 25th. We are currently trying to establish the position of the investors with regard to the Indian development project. Please email ian.barrett@grantthornton.ie the following details:

Your: 1) Name

2) Address

3) e-mail details

4) Amount of money invested

Kindly note that we will contact you by email by 12 December 2008 with an update on the position."

An independent buyers group has also been formed for those with issues regarding Larionovo's Indian products. For further information email Karen Marshall on karen@maka.ie.

Any way you look at it this is another large nail in the Irish overseas property industry coffin which leaves no doubt as to just how fragile the market is at this point in time.

This isn't the end for Norton and Brett in terms of overseas property. The pair are also directors of Profile, a Dubai based company which is currently working on development work in the Emirate and has also been instrumental in the purchase and ongoing development of the islands of Ireland and Thailand in The World development in the Arabian Gulf.

There is a link to this story on our website here.

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