Ardawn Developments wrote down the value of its property investments from €68.8m to €4.5m last year after changing its accounting policies, according to accounts filed for the company. The investments were valued at €108.4m at the start of 2008, the accounts state, but were worth just €2.625m at the end of last year following the change.

Ardawn Developments raised over €56m in equity in 2005 from private investors of NCB Stockbrokers and spent an average of €300,000 an acre buying up sites. Shareholders' funds at the company plunged from €32m to €7.6m last year.

Auditors Deloitte inserted two emphases of matter in the accounts. The first pointed out each of the group's subsidiaries is in breach of its loan-to-value banking covenants. The second noted that the financial statements and its subsidiary undertakings had been consolidated, apart from those "whose balance sheets show net liabilities and in respect of which the company has no obligation to provide funding to restore the subsidiary undertaking to a net asset position". If it were to do so the consolidated balance sheet would show overall net liabilities of more than €6.5m.

Last week the Sunday Tribune wrote that Ardawn Developments Two lost €14.9m last year according to its consolidated financial statements, compared to a loss of €54.73m the previous year.