At the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service on Tuesday 13th April, 2010, the NAMA CEO indicated that Anglo’s first tranche of loans would be transferred to NAMA in the “next 10 days”. Other than an article in yesterday’s Sunday Tribune which suggests that the Anglo estimated payment for the first tranche may be €4.5bn, and not €5.0bn previously estimated by NAMA, there has been no news. Are there unexpected problems?
With respect to the first tranche, the Tribune article claims that only BoI’s first tranche is “without issues” and apparently there are disputes in respect of the three other institutions. It is unclear whether the EU have approved the first tranche valuations.
Maybe rumours (tonite) that the EU has blocked any further State aid for Anglo are true and transferring Anglo’s toxic loans to Nama would constitute State aid. My 2c of speculation
Yes, heard the same rumours which if true will land a heavy blow on the government position that Anglo is systemic and its failure would result in a “cost too great to countenance”. However I don’t see how NAMA’s dealings with Anglo could constitute state aid with the exception of the long term economic value premium (and frankly given that the consideration paid on the first tranche is almost 20% less than the LEV, even that mightn’t apply). However even if NAMA was paying the current market value of the loans that still entails the taxpayer (or citizenry as Vincent Browne would probably prefer) taking on risk and if Anglo is going to be let go, then why bother even taking on that risk?