Nama puts €600m loans portfolio up for sale

The National Asset Management Agency has placed a large portfolio of loans with a face value of €600 million on the market, as the latest step in its plan for an early wind-down of its activities.

The loans relate to five debtors and comprise more than 70 properties in Ireland, Britain and the United States.

It is thought to include a number of hotels, including the 261-bedroom Radisson Blu in Galway city, which is connected to developer Jerry O'Reilly.

About 30 per cent of the assets are located in Dublin, and it is understood that there are also some residential and commercial properties included in the portfolio.

The sale has been dubbed Project Arch by Nama, which declined to comment on the process yesterday.

Wound up Set up in 2009, Nama was originally due to have wound up its activities in 2020. However, the recovery in the Irish economy over the past 12 to 18 months has resulted in the agency accelerating its asset sales in Ireland to the point where it expects to have largely concluded its work by 2018.

In March, Nama launched the sale of Project Albion, a non-performing portfolio connected to UK commercial loans that were previously connected with AIB. Its par value was £226 million.

In February, Nama appointed Cushman & Wakefield to handle the sale of Project Arrow, an €8.4 billion portfolio of non-performing loans, secured mostly against Irish real estate. This is the largest portfolio sale undertaken by Nama.

Nama acquired €74 billion of loans and assets from Ireland’s domestic banks in 2010 and 2011 for €31.8 billion.

Last month, Nama chairman Frank Daly told the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry that the agency "may realise" a surplus of €1 billion for the exchequer by the time it has completed its work.