Company used to buy Project Eagle loans from Nama records profit of £105,960

The company used by US fund Cerberus to buy the controversial Project Eagle loans from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) recorded profits of £105,962 (€123,560) last year.

Cerberus’s purchase of the loans, to Northern Ireland-based borrowers, for €1.6 billion in 2014 became the subject of parliamentary inquiries on either side of the Border and a police investigation.

Accounts for Promontoria Eagle, the company Cerberus used to buy the loans, show it made profits of £105,962 in 2020.

The figure was a sharp fall on the £1.4 million recorded the previous year, reflecting a fall in the amount collected on the loans that the company acquired. This fell to £1.5 million in 2020 from £7.9 million in 2019.

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Buying the debts entitled Promontoria Eagle to collect them or take possession of the properties against which they were secured if the debtors were unable to repay.

Project Eagle involved €6 billion in loans from the Republic's banks to borrowers from the North, who used the cash to buy properties, mainly in Ireland and Britain.

Nama took them over from the banks along with many other such debts in 2010 after the financial crash here.

Despite the controversy that followed the deal, Nama always maintained that the sale of the Project Eagle loans was conducted properly, and that the agency achieved the best price possible for the assets.

Investigation

Belfast businessman Frank Cushnahan, a former member of Nama's Northern Ireland advisory committee, and solicitor Ian Coulter, one-time managing partner of the law firm that worked on the deal, Tughans, both face fraud charges as a result of a police investigation in the North.

Both men have denied the charges.

A Belfast court heard earlier this year that Covid-19 restrictions had delayed the trial, which is expected to deal with a large volume of evidence.

At the same hearing, Mr Cushnahan’s counsel said the businessman was anxious to clear his name.

Cerberus did not comment on Promontoria Eagle's results. The company is one of several the US firm set up in the Republic to buy property loans following the financial crash.