NAMA’s been criticised for giving the United States vulture fund “Cerberus” the chance to buy the loans.
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The loans were advanced to 302 debtors before Ireland’s property bubble burst in 2008, NAMA said. Their par value was 6.25 billion euros.
THE Mayo News can report this morning (Friday, October 23) that NAMA has agreed to drop loans attaching to the Westport House Estate from its “Project Arrow” property portfolio, which is now for sale on the open market.
That auction has sparked a huge controversy.
Nama said its board made the decision to sell to Cerberus based on the strong and clear recommendation of Cushman & Wakefield, the loan sale adviser appointed in February 2015.
Nama has said it had no knowledge of any alleged payments and the Project Eagle bidding process was robust and competitive and the outcome secured the best price for Irish taxpayers.
Donegal Deputy Thomas Pringle has called for the suspension of the Project Arrow sale, saying questions remaining from the Project Eagle sale in the North have not been addressed.
He told the Irish Examiner that he was aware that investigations by United States authorities were ongoing, but he had no knowledge of the status or size of those investigations. “Some 43% of the assets, by value, are residential properties, the majority of which are now let or occupied”.
Defending his intervention, Ring said he had been inundated with requests from constituents to help “save the house” and believes he was “fully entitled to raise matters with Nama of constituency or national interest”. “I’ll continue working with the council and hopefully we can tie this up in the next few months”, said Ring.Mr Daly said Nama’s expectations were met in the sale price.
While the price has not been revealed, the National Assets Management Agency (Nama’s) revealed weeks ago that it had a reserve value in the region of 1 billion euro – one fifth of what was originally borrowed by developers, investors and speculators.
That roster shrunk last month to two bidders – Cerberus and Apollo Global Management – after a rival bidder withdrew from the auction process.
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The sale proceeds will go to paying down Nama’s senior debt.
