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Meat factory owners John McCann and his business partner Colm Pyers have bought a family farm from Promontoria, a subsidiary of so-called culture fund Cerberus Capital.
The land was owned by dairy farmer Liam Gilmore before he fell into difficulty during a period of low milk prices in 2009.
The farm was repossessed on foot of a €1.4m loan to Ulster Bank and later transferred to Cerberus.
Gilmore owned farmland that received previous interest from a Larry Goodman-controlled company, Braganstown Farms Unlimited.
Both McCann and Pyers are owners of C&J Meats with an address in Edenmore Farm Meats, Coolatee, Lifford, Co Donegal
In a solicitor’s letter dated 19 April 2018, seen by the Irish Farmers Journal, Braganstown Farms Unlimited, whose directors include Laurence P Goodman and Laurence J Goodman, stated it had purchased assets of Liam Gilmore from the receiver.
Land Registry documents now show that fellow meat factory owners John McCann and Colm Pyers are listed as owners of land that was previously owned by Gilmore.
Both McCann and Pyers are owners of C&J Meats with an address in Edenmore Farm Meats, Coolatee, Lifford, Co Donegal.
It is not known for what purpose the meat factory owners bought the farm, with a two-hour (137km) drive, cross-border, between the farm in Louth and the meat factory in Donegal.
The meat factory owners bought Edenmore Farm Meats after it closed suddenly.
The most recent credit report for C&J Meats shows that it has been incorporated since 2017 with tangible assets worth €1.1m at the end of the financial year in 2018.
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