Is NAMA capitulating to Paddy McKillen?

News today that Paddy McKillen has at last made the sale of that Bond Street property on which pesky Bank of Ireland had previously put the kibosh. The Irish Times had reported previously in relation to Paddy’s judicial review application: “Mr McKillen claims the loans are “fully performing” and their transfer will have “a seriously detrimental impact” on the value of the underlying properties. For example, he said he planned to sell an investment property on Old Bond Street in London for €18.2 million last May, but when he went to enter a contract on the deal he was told by Bank of Ireland that the sale had to be approved by Nama, even though the loan on the property had not yet been acquired by Nama.”

Well NAMA finally seems to have agreed the sale and Paddy has got his €18.2m which is being described as “exceptional”. The company that sold the freehold in the building on Bond Street was Metrospa Limited which is one of the 15 companies joined with Paddy in his application for a judicial review. And with news that the Maybourne group is close to securing finance from the US property company Westbrook Partners and one other unnamed property trust, one wonders whether there will be any NAMA-eligible loans by the time the application for the judicial review is finally heard. So Paddy may well keep his assets away from NAMA. Certainly bad news for NAMA as they are increasingly depending on performing loans to avoid having to go cap in hand back to the Department of Finance for yet another handout. Being deprived of €800m-plus of Paddy’s performing loans will hurt.

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