Nama sees profit for last year even as cash generation fell 27%

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) said it expected to report a profit for last year, even as cash generated by the so-called bad bank fell almost 27 per cent amid its continued asset sell-off.

The organisation, led by chief executive Brendan McDonagh, said on Thursday that it generated €492 million in cash in 2022, with more than €450 million of this coming from disposals. However, the overall figure was down from €670 million posted in 2021.

Nama has generated about €47.4 billion of cash since it was formed more than a decade ago. It took over €74 billion of risky and deeply distressed commercial property loans from Irish banks in 2010 at a discounted price of €32 billion.

That cash generation mainly came from asset sales. Nama valued the remaining assets on its balance sheet at €1.62 billion as of the end of last June.

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The projected profit for 2022 would represent its 12th consecutive year of surplus. Nama posted a €195 million net profit in 2021.

“As we look toward the final phase of Nama’s work, through to the end of 2025, we are determined to deliver the largest return possible to the taxpayer and to maximise the value of the remaining assets,” Mr McDonagh said.

The chief executive said that Nama’s residential delivery programme continues to fund and facilitate housing with 1,000 units being delivered in 2022 and 2023 in areas of high demand. “Nama remains focused on preparing our remaining secured sites to be shovel ready for housing development post-2025,” he said.

The agency said it had funded or facilitated the delivery of 28,000 new homes across the Republic since 2014. Nama-secured sites have a residential pipeline of about 16,000 additional units if appropriate zoning and planning can be secured, and necessary infrastructure put in place, which will be deliverable post-2025, it said.

Nama transferred €500 million from its lifetime surplus to the exchequer during 2022, bringing total surplus cash remitted to the State to €3.5 billion. Including €400 million in corporate tax payments, Nama’s total return to the State so far is €3.9 billion, it said.

The agency is forecasting that it will make a further €1 billion of surplus transfers to the exchequer in the coming years, subject to market conditions.