Johnny Ronan

John Ronan is an Irish businessman and property developer. He was born into a wealthy farming family in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.[1] Ronan began his education at Castleknock College.[2] He went on to train as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and by his 20s was already involved in property deals with his father, who was also a developer.[3][4]

Ronan teamed up with Richard Barret from Mayo to form Treasury Holdings in 1989. The company was one of the largest Irish commercial developers and known for landmark buildings on Dublin's skyline.[5]

Among Treasury Holdings’ other high-profile developments were the Google Headquarters (Montevetro), the Convention Centre Dublin, the Ritz Carlton and the award-winning residential tower Altro Vetro.[6]

The Convention Centre Dublin was Ireland's first purpose built international conference centre. It was developed as a public private partnership between Spencer Dock Development Company Ltd and the Office of Public Works (OPW). It opened in September 2010 and has since hosted numerous events including the European People's Party Congress in 2014, which was attended by 17 heads of state.[7]

Real Estate Opportunities, majority owned by Treasury Holdings, was responsible for building and agreeing with the sale of the Montevetro office building on Barrow Street in Dublin to Google for €99.9m in cash. It was Dublin's tallest commercial office building at the time.[8][9]

In November 2006, Real Estate Opportunities (in which Treasury Holdings had a 60% stake) purchased Battersea Power Station and the surrounding land for €532 million (£400 million).[10][11] This was Treasury's biggest single scheme and in 2012 it secured the largest planning permission ever granted in central London – approximately 8.5 million square feet of residential, office and retail space masterplanned by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly. The scheme also includes an extension of the Northern Line Underground.[12][13][14] On 30 November 2011, it was officially announced that the scheme's lenders Lloyds Bank and Ireland's National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) would put it into Administration. It was subsequently sold to a Malaysian consortium led by SP Setia, which had been in negotiations with Treasury Holdings prior to the Administration to buy the scheme. Setia hired the Treasury management team and have commenced building the Treasury scheme.[15][16]

In October 2012 the High Court appointed liquidators to Treasury Holdings and 16 related companies. The move followed a decision by Treasury not to resist a winding-up application by one of its banks, KBC, over a debt of €55m. Treasury had debts of €2.7bn, €1.7bn of which was owed to the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).[17]

Johnny Ronan retained substantial assets not in Treasury Holdings and in April 2015 these were refinanced in a €300 million deal with backing from Colony Capital, M&G Investments, and Deutsche Bank. Ronan repaid his debts at par and exited NAMA.[18][19][20][21] The refinancing for the deal was secured on RGRE's portfolio of 24 assets in Dublin - including three Grafton Street retail properties, the Treasury Building, a number of other buildings in Dublin 2, Kilmore House in Spencer Dock, and Connaught House in Burlington Road.[22][23]