Nama now owns €71bn of bank property loans

STATE TOXIC debt agency, Nama, now owns €71 billion worth of property loans given by Irish banks to developers during the boom.

Nama, which has been buying property-related loans from AIB, Anglo Irish, Bank of Ireland, EBS and Irish Nationwide, since last year, issued its 2010 third quarter results yesterday.

The agency said that by yesterday, March 2nd, it had bought €71.2 billion worth of such loans from the five participating banks, and paid a total of €30.2 billion to acquire the debts, which was a discount of 58 per cent.

By the end of its third quarter, on September 30th last year, it had taken over €27.3 billion worth of loans, and paid €13 billion to take control of those debts.

Repayments on three out of four of those loans were in arrears by more than 30 days on September 30th.

Chairman Frank Daly said yesterday that the agency has completed an examination of business plans submitted by the top 30 debtors, which represent €27 billion in total and 40 per cent of the overall portfolio.

It has signed, or is close to signing, memos of understanding with 12 of these, while others are at an advanced stage.

Nama has already confirmed that it had agreed to advance €592 million in working capital to some of the borrowers whose loans it had bought by the middle of February.