Paddy McKillen: Difference between revisions

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Patrick McKillen (born 1955) is an international hotelier, property investor and businessman.^[1][2]

McKillen was born in Andersonstown, West Belfast. His father owned a garage in the same suburb. At the age of 16, he joined and built up the company, which became one of the first garage chains in Northern Ireland, sold in the 1990s for €25 million ($31 million).^[3]

During the 1980s, McKillen built up a portfolio of assets including commercial buildings, retail stores and shopping centres in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick. He was the main shareholder of the Jervis Shopping Centre (which was a hospital that he turned into a shopping mall^[4]), and a key investor in Clarendon Properties.^[5]

In the 1990s, he turned his attention to building an international property business. He focused on buying properties with significant unrealized potential in key locations, improving them and managing and holding the assets for the long-term. His portfolio gathered hotels, retail and commercial properties in Europe, the US, Asia and South America.

Led by Irish investor Derek Quinlan, McKillen invested in the Savoy Hotel Group in 2004.^[6] Shortly afterwards Quinlan sold the Savoy Hotel^[7] and changed the name to the Maybourne Hotel Group which then included Claridges, The Connaught and The Berkeley.

In 2015, the Qatari royal family (through Constellation Hotels, subsidiary of Qatar Holding) bought the Maybourne group for an undisclosed amount believed to be around £1.4 billion.^[8]

McKillen launched his first major legal action to stop NAMA when it attempted to seize his estimated €3 billion of debt owed to Irish banks during Ireland's banking crisis. In February 2011 he won a landmark Supreme Court Case in Ireland and blocked NAMA from acquiring McKillen's debt . McKillen lined up Nobel Prize winning economist Professor Joseph Stigliz as an expert witness in the case which was unusually heard before all seven Irish Supreme Court judges. Professor Stiglitz erroneously stated that McKillen's international portfolio of prime property assets was run to pension fund standards and that his profitable loans were exactly what the Irish economy needed to recover and stimulate growth and jobs, and that it would be detrimental to Mr McKillen's businesses and the Irish economy to transfer them to NAMA. The Irish Attorney General argued McKillen was unable to repay or refinance his loans ^[9] and his debt qualified for NAMA.

The seven Irish Supreme Court judges unanimously ruled in McKillen's favour essentially because the decision to acquire the loans was made before NAMA had been formally established. They also found that McKillen has a right to be heard before acquisition of his loans. His Irish Supreme Court case Dellway vs NAMA is recognised as a landmark legal decision and is used internationally as an example of how Governments cannot override citizens’ rights during national emergencies.^[10] The Supreme Court ruled NAMA could now, given it was established, acquire McKillen's loans however as all Irish Banks had by then been nationalised NAMA decided not to acquire McKillen's remaining €1.5 billion of debt which had not already been transferred to NAMA.^[11]

The British Barclay Brothers became the largest shareholders of the Maybourne Hotel group in 2011 with a direct & indirect holding of 64%. In 2012 McKillen sued the Barclay Brothers and NAMA in his attempt to gain control of Maybourne; spending over £27 million in legal fees on one of the largest commercial legal actions taken in London's High Court. McKillen was defeated in court^[12][13] and was found liable for £27m in legal fees.^[14] Following this loss, in 2015, both McKillen and the Barclay Brothers both sold their entire shareholding in the hotels to Qatar's Constellation Hotels.^[15]

After selling his shareholding McKillen continued to run the hotels for a £5 million annual fee. He managed a redevelopment of Claridges and the expansion of hotel group to include Maybourne Riviera in France and Maybourne Beverly Hills. In April 2022, the Qataris removed McKillen from the board of Maybourne Hotels.^{[16][17][18][19]}

Paddy McKillen owns and has been developing Chateau La Coste, a biodynamic vineyard and international destination for art, architecture and natural beauty in Provence, for the past 15 years.^[20] It was named by Newsweek as one of the Top 100 Destinations to ‘Visit in the World’. In 2017 McKillen opened a luxury hotel, Villa La Coste, on the 600-acre estate.

McKillen is continuing to expand his global business. In April 2022, he opened The Shinmonzen, A Tadao Ando designed Japanese Inn which he developed in Gion, Kyoto.^[21]

McKillen’s wife is named Maura. In 2009 Maura McKillen was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and evading police after allegedly refusing to stop after being reported as a drunk driver.^[22] They have four children together and live in Los Angeles and France.^[4]

Together with his son, Paddy McKillen Jr, McKillen was a large shareholder^[23] of the insolvent Press Up Entertainment which was taken over by its largest lender Cheyne Capital.^[24][25]