Pimco claims it told Nama of third parties seeking payment

Pimco gave Nama details of the third parties who sought payment from it for aiding its bid for the agency’s Northern Irish loans before it pulled out of the auction in March 2014, the fund manager said yesterday.

Pimco is disputing Nama’s explanation for its decision to leave the process, dubbed Project Eagle, which resulted in the agency selling €5.6 billion worth of property loans to another fund, Cerberus, for €1.7 billion in June 2014.

The investment firm said yesterday that it never paid any third party and stressed that it pulled out of the bidding process voluntarily rather than being asked to do so by Nama.

“Prior to withdrawing from the Project Eagle tender process, Pimco raised its concerns about the role of the third parties to Nama and advised Nama of the details of an acquisition fee that had been requested by those third parties, and the identity of those third parties,” the investment firm said.

Independent TD Mick Wallace claims that £7 million found in an Isle of Man bank account during an audit of Belfast law firm Tughans, which advised Cerberus, was destined for a senior Northern Ireland politician. The firm's managing partner, Ian Coulter, resigned after the discovery in January.

Former Nama Northern Ireland advisory committee member Frank Cushnahan and Tughans met Pimco as it was preparing to enter the auction, which began in early 2014.

Pimco introduction

Tughans was introduced to Pimco by US law firm Brown Rudnick, which Pimco consulted ahead of entering the Project Eagle process. However, the fund never actually engaged Brown Rudnick as it decided to pull out of the process.

The successful bidder, Cerberus, did hire Brown Rudnick, which in turn engaged Tughans to work on its bid. Mr Cushnahan was not involved at this stage.

Nama has said that it only agreed to accept the Cerberus offer after it received assurances that the buyer had not paid any third party.

Brown Rudnick said yesterday that both it and Tughans assured Cerberus, which in turn told Nama, that no payments were made to any current or former member of the agency’s board, executive or advisory committee. Cerberus confirmed this in a separate statement and also said that Brown Rucnick had previously been working with another interested party that was no longer involved in the process. “We were not aware, and we were not made aware, of the reasons why their former client was no longer involved,” Cerberus said. “Given the timing, and the complexity of the bid and the underlying assets, we believed that we could benefit from Brown Rudnick’s prior work.”

Nama statement challenged

Pimco said yesterday that it never appointed Brown Rudnick or Tughans as advisers. It is challenging Nama’s statement that the fund dropped out of the process after telling the agency that it had arranged to pay fees to a former member of the organisation’s Northern Ireland advisory committee.

“Pimco decided to withdraw from the Project Eagle tender process, not because of any Nama decision but because of the concerns relating to the third parties that Pimco had identified as part of its due diligence checks,” it said.

Nama would not comment beyond the statement it made at the weekend. According to that, Pimco informed the agency’s board on March 10th, 2014 that it had a “fee arrangemement” with a former member of its advisory committee.

The State agency maintained that the firm dropped out on March 13th after the Nama board decided that it could not permit Pimco to remain in the race.

The finance committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly is due to look at the controversy over the Nama sale today.