Over €1bn bid for O’Flynn’s loans in Nama sale

Nama has sanctioned the sale of the book – a high-performing portfolio of Irish and UK property assets, it is understood. Cork developer O’Flynn is a ‘top 10’ Nama client.

Five offers were made, with three – said be from Lone Star, Deutsche Bank, and Apollo – having been selected. Offers were above €1bn for the book, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

One fund boss described “frustrating delays” on proceeding to a sales process.

Another explained: “It has gone through the board, offers have been made. Three parties have offered the guts of €1bn.”

A sale at €1bn would net a profit for Nama and the taxpayer. Nama bought the loans for circa €900m. Funds that also considered the O’Flynn book included the Dan Quayle vehicle Cerberus, Blackstone and Starwood.

Although there has been no official announcement, it is well known that the O’Flynn book is on the market, prompted by a horde of unsolicited approaches from prospective buyers in recent months, and its sale has been approved by Nama’s board, it is believed.

This would be Nama’s biggest portfolio sale and the first potential big money generator for property outside of Dublin, as the book includes Cork development prospects.

The biggest sale to date was the €800m Aspen portfolio to US group Starwood, with Nama taking a 20 per cent stake and supplying vendor finance.

It is understood that Bank of Ireland was initially in the running to provide finance for the project Aspen sale. However, ultimately Nama took the vendor finance role, causing some unhappiness at the pillar bank.

When contacted last week, Nama didn’t respond to questions about the status of the sales process or whether an adviser had been appointed to manage the sales process as would be the normal course of events.

A Nama board meeting held last week is believed to have included discussion about the O’Flynn portfolio, but the bad bank agency would not comment on what transpired when asked.