Developers borrow €420m from Nama to finish projects

PROPERTY DEVELOPERS have drawn €420 million from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) out of €590 million set aside since last March to complete building projects.

The working capital loans have been used by the likes of Treasury Holdings, one of the 10 biggest borrowers in Nama, to complete large projects to be sold.

Two of the projects to have benefited from the Nama loans are the Convention Centre and the Montevetro office building in Dublin. Internet company Google is in negotiations to buy the Montevetro building from Treasury in a sale encouraged by Nama.

Nama has approved property sales worth €500 million in the first six weeks of the year by borrowers whose loans have been transferred to the agency.

Some of the proceeds went to banks outside the Nama process, which had loans in syndicates with banks that have transferred loans.

This is in addition to asset sales of €2 billion up to the end of 2010, the proceeds of which were shared with some non-Nama financial institutions. About 90 per cent of the sales related to UK properties where the market is stronger.

Some €170 million remains undrawn in the working capital facilities made available by Nama to the biggest borrowers whose business plans have been approved by it, according to sources close to the State loans agency.

Of the top 30 borrowers, Nama has signed off on business plans submitted by 12 developers and is in an advanced stage of negotiations on agreements with six other developers.

Nama is aiming to assess the business plans of the top 170 borrowers, who will have loans of about €60 billion with the agency by the end of this year.

These borrowers have loans in excess of €75 million and will be managed directly by Nama. The top 30 borrowers account for €27 billion in loans.

The agency has acquired property and related loans with a face value of €71.2 billion for €30.2 billion. It will eventually acquire €88 billion loans for a likely consideration of about €37 billion, the State agency said last week.

Nama has approved 33 enforcement actions to seize assets. In some cases, the agency has offered a six-month probationary period before taking action against certain borrowers to assess their level of co-operation with the agency.