The commercial property business W G Mitchell, owned by Londonderry brothers Patrick and Hugh Hegarty has had 30 of its 75 companies put into administration.
The £500 million business owns properties in Northern Ireland, Scotland and England, all of which are leased to third parties.
Administrators, Ernst & Young, have said that the companies would continue to operate as normal, whilst options for selling them are considered.
The Hegarty family, who have an estimated fortune of £40 million according to the latest Sunday Times rich list, have been investing in property in Northern Ireland since the 1960s. With a focus on hotels, the family business began to move into the Scottish market in the late 1990s.
Ernst & Young have said that the companies were struggling in a “challenging” market place, stating: “They have been finding it increasingly difficult to meet the significant backlog of creditors as well as ongoing debt service obligations. The business model under which the companies have been operating was becoming unsustainable.”
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