Nama to sell two property portfolios for up to €400m

The National Asset Management Agency is planning to sell two loan portfolios in the coming weeks for an estimated €350 million to €400 milliion. This will add to the €2.2 billion in loan and asset sales already achieved by the agency this year.

Addressing a meeting of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in Limerick yesterday, Nama chairman Frank Daly said they portfolio comprised of “prime retail and residential as well as offices”.

Nama refused to comment further on the specifics of the loans, citing commercial sensitivities.

These sales follow the €800 million Aspen loan portfolio, secured almost entirely on Irish commercial property, to US investment group Starwood in a joint venture that sees Nama retaining a 20 per cent stake.

Mr Daly also said the acquisition of loans from the special liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation at the beginning of next year would increase Nama’s balance sheet by “over 50 per cent”.

Mr Daly said the transfer of these loans would bring “significant challenges” for Nama, “not least those arising from the need to recruit a lot of staff against a backdrop of public sector pay restrictions”.

At then end of 2012, Nama had loans and receivables, net of impairments, on its books of €22.8 billion. This would indicate that it expects to acquire more than €11 billion from the liquidators of IBRC, who are seeking to deal with a portfolio of €27 billion.

“We have been working hard over the last number of months to prepare the ground for the acquisition of this new portfolio but, given its scale, it is likely that much of our focus in 2014 will be on absorbing and integrating it into our business,” Mr Daly said of the IBRC loans.

Mr Daly said Nama’s objective with whatever loans it acquires from IBRC would be to “maximise the return for the taxpayer and to do so as expeditiously as possible”.

He reminded the audience that Nama has set aside €2 billion in development funding and the same amount in vendor finance, of which €375 million has already been advanced through six transactions.

Nama has generated €13.5 billion in cash to date, including €9 billion from the sale of assets and loans – 80 per cent of this from the UK – and €4.5 billion in recurring cash from rentals and “basic good management”, Mr Daly added.

He said total sales in Ireland to date amount to about €1.3 billion and have involved more than 2,000 individual properties. This includes €142 million of property sales in Munster.

“Our debtors and receivers currently have €1.5 billion worth of residential and commercial property on the market here,” he said.

The Nama chairman said the agency was “on course” to repay €7.5 billion or 25 per cent of its senior bonds by its end of 2013 deadline.

“Our key objective is that we will have repaid all of the senior debt (€30 billion) on our original portfolio by 2020 and I firmly believe that will happen.” Source: The Irish Times.