Nama could provide funding for two portfolios worth €1bn

State agency Nama could provide funding to the purchasers of the €1 billion worth of loans that it plans to sell before the end of month.

Nama has put two portfolios, the €810 million project Aspen and the €230 million project Club up for sale and it is understood the agency hopes a deal can be done on both by the end of this month.

Project Aspen, the larger of the two projects, is mainly made up of debts owed by developers David Courtney and Jerry O’Reilly.

The portfolio is generating an income of about €15 million a year and the tenants include the State itself and the grocery chain operator Musgrave.

Cash

It has emerged that the agency may lend purchasers with some of the cash they need to buy the portfolios, through its staple or vendor finance scheme.

Nama put forward the vendor finance scheme in 2011 and it was thought that it would only apply where properties rather than loans were sold.

However, in response to a recent Dáil question, the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, said that the scheme would operate on a case-by-case basis and apply to both loans and the the properties themselves.

Under the scheme, Nama provides 70 per cent of the value of the property or loan being purchased.

The agency itself would not comment on whether or not the two loan portfolios would qualify for the vendor finance scheme.

Supermarkets

According to property portal, CoStar, the project Aspen loans are likely to sell for between €240 million and €320 million, between 30 cent and 40 cent in the euro.

The properties involved include Harcourt Street Garda station in Dublin, a number of Superquinn supermarkets and a business park.

Mr Courtney, of real estate agency Spain, Courtney, Doyle, was an active investor during the property bubble, was involved in a number of the high-profile deals that characterised the era, including the takeover of Superquinn.

Possible buyers include Kennedy Wilson, which last year bought the Ulster Bank loan on State Street’s Dublin offices and Green Property, which has also bid for distressed debt owned by IBRC.

Agency CBRE is selling the smaller project Club package.

While the buyers acquire the loans rather than the properties, they have the right to take control of the properties if the debtors fail to make repayments or meet other commitments under their loan agreements.