NAMA could acquire €30bn in foreign loans

By Paul O’Brien Political Correspondent
www.irishexaminer.com

THE State may end up taking over almost €30 billion of high-risk British and US property loans in its bid to restore Irish banks to health.

Once established, the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) will buy roughly €90bn of property loans from the banks. The objective is to remove the riskiest loans from the banks’ balance sheets in order to return them to health.

But some €28bn of the €90bn loans which the state agency looks set to acquire relate to property developments in Britain and the US embarked on by Irish developers.

The Government had made clear from day one that foreign developments would be included in NAMA and indicated that they could ultimately account for up to a third of the loans taken over.

Those figures now look set to be realised, after tender documents released by the Government this week put estimates on the loans involved. They show the combined value of British and US loans at circa €28bn – €25bn in the former and €3bn in the latter.

The documents state: “It is estimated that the Great Britain portfolio of loans which may be eligible for acquisition by NAMA is approximately €25bn.” While they add that “no further detail on the composition of this portfolio will be made available at this time”, the Government has previously said roughly half of the British loan portfolio relates to developments in Northern Ireland.

In relation to the US, the documents state: “It is estimated that the USA portfolio of loans which may be eligible for acquisition by NAMA is approximately €3bn.” Read full article…

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