It should be stressed at the outset that this story is 100%-based on Simon Carswell’s report in the Irish Times today where he claims that NAMA is investigating one of its employees, portfolio manager Colm Lundy and his links with a NAMAed developer (and company where Colm has been a director in the past), Newlyn Developments. NAMA has not commented on the claim about the investigation apparently and the Irish Times was unable to get in touch with Colm despite “repeated efforts” which is hardly surprising – if NAMA won’t comment at an official level, how do you expect a lowly employee to comment in his own right? What the Irish Times claims is at issue is whether or not Colm was upfront about his involvement with Newlyn – NAMA “is examining whether Mr Lundy has any personal exposure to Newlyn’s debts or connected borrowings and, if so, whether this has been disclosed to the agency.” From today’s report it seems that Colm had a fraught relationship with his former employer, Newlyn, taking it to the Employment Appeals Tribunal and suing it in the High Court for unpaid profits.
You’d have to wonder how Simon at the Irish Times got wind of this story – it’s not something you’d expect NAMA would want to shout about, nor Colm himself. Presumably the only current exposure that a former director of a company might have to the company’s debts would be via a personal guarantee that wasn’t cancelled when the director left the company – and NAMA would presumably now have details of those personal guarantees since it acquired Newlyn’s loans. Even if the exposure was to a non-NAMA loan the business plan of the developer would presumably give details of the exposure. And presumably NAMA has decent civil-service standard procedures for recording conflicts of interest when it employs people. So “investigation” seems a grand description for what should be a pretty quick check. As I say this blogpost is 100%-based on what Simon Carswell writes.
Separately, Newlyn itself seems to be a minnow in NAMA’s assortment of developers. The Irish Times reports that the company had bank loans of just €22m in July 2010 – NAMA has a minimum acquisition threshold of €20m for loans at AIB and Bank of Ireland, €5m at Anglo and no threshold at EBS and INBS. The €22m owed by Newlyn in 2010 may not all have been owing to NAMA banks. Newlyn is probably most associated with the €2bn stalled development of Bray Town Centre, but it has also been involved with the following developments : Tyrrells Brook (Edenderry, Co Offaly), Cairnbrook Avenue (Carrickmines, Dublin), Wyvern (Bray, Co Wicklow), Grand Canal Court (Herberton Bridge, Dublin 8), St Olave’s (Kinsealy, Co Dublin), Newberry (Edenderry, Co Offaly), Block 10/11 (Montague Lane, Dublin 2), Bray Civic Centre (Bray, Co Wicklow), Southern Cross Business Park (Bray, Co Wicklow), Bray Town Centre (Bray, Co Wicklow), Woodstown (Rathfarnham, Dublin 16), 622 homes at Kilternan (Co Dublin), Victoria Boulevard (Vilamoura, Portugal), O Pomar (Portugal), Four Seasons Country Club (Quinta do Lago, Portugal), Rutland House (Rutland Street, Leicester, UK)
Directors and representatives of Newlyn include Robert Kehoe, Christy Dowling, George McGarry, John Archbold and Chris Vaughan
UPDATE: 19th November 2012. Simon Carswell of the Irish Times has today reported that Colm Lundy left the Agency and in May 2012, he set up CL Asset Management. Neither Colm nor NAMA is commenting on the apparent investigation last year.
NAMA Wine Lake 
Any chance award winning journo Simon would let us know if he was doing a decent job !
It’s inevitable and unavoidable in such a small market,but why is Nama hiring people from small time companies,is the talent pool that shallow?
So the “head” of the division mulcahy is X Jones Lang who openly state that they have benefited from their Nama work and were involved in Glass Bottle Site!
the fees at GBS probably exceed what’s owed above!
Whoops, posted the comment below on wrong string:
“Let’s face it, the whole staffing issue in NAMA is incestuous and a problem. A majority of the staff, from John Mulcahy down, are poachers turned gamekeepers – and mainly failed poachers at that! We are only a population of 4.5 million and as John Mauldin rightly says, “we only have two degrees of separation”. Trying to turn a bunch of property managers and real estate advisors into bureaucracy bound civil servants was never going to succeed 100%, especially when the sales process starts at home.”
on November 5, 2011 at 3:17 pm | ReplyJohn GALLAHER
@wstt who is Nama anymore?
Does anyone know including the guys that work there?
Sitting around on their asses reading a bunch of failed business plans seizing crap art collections attending ridiculous conferences.
The ongoing and glacial “negotiations” re BPS are farcical,REO recently issued another non statement,slavishly reported in IT does NAMA need some assistance.
http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5503288/reo-says-nama-deal-is-close
It depends on what kind of talent you’re looking for. If you’re looking for competent, reasonably priced, and dependable people, Ireland, the UK, and other countries can provide ample personnel for Nama.
If however, you are looking for Irish property insiders, who know how to wheel, deal, wine and wile, then the talent pool is substantially smaller.
It is absolutely no surprise whatsoever to find that current Nama employees are under investigation for conflicts of interest in past dealings. The whole point of Nama was to take in people who ran companies into the ground and amassed bankruptcy inducing debts, then give them a kind of Chapter 11 on steroids write-down program and on top of it all pay them to manage the very property they managed to bust in the first place.
Nama is like a traffic investigator that only hires people who have recently crashed their cars into something; inevitably, one of their people is going to return to the scene of the crime.
@OMF, Competent and dependable…. In what capacity?
Many competent UK developers and builders came to Ireland over the decades (Wimpeys, Crouch, Wates etc) They all went home, unable to comprehend or compete in the Irish market.
It took more than the developers to bust the market. The banks helped and so did the DoF, the media and the politicians, especially Bertie who was the main cheerleader. Since the bubble burst, the banks have added to the problem by starving the industry of capital. Until there is capital in the property market there will be no recovery and consequently, no growth or consequent recovery in the economy.
I thought the point of NAMA was that they were not supposed to recruit the drunk drivers. Everyone hired was supposed to be a teetotaler, not straight out of re-hab. Old habits die hard though.
@omf is some bizarre form of vengeance really that important ?
That line was crossed long time ago.
You need better qualified motivated people.
What’s more important getting a good return for the taxpayer,or publishing and publicly flaying some low level employee.
You can see links everywhere if you look hard enough. We are a small country and the property sector is a micro subset of the economy. Most developers and property professionals know each other well. NAMA sometimes appears naive in this regard, looking for confidentiality clauses in agreements, while their debtors exchange information on a daily basis.
The links? Colm Lundy worked for Newlyn; Newlyn shareholder Robert Kehoe worked for Anglo; Anglo appointed Robert Kehoe to manage (oversee) the Paddy Kelly portfolio before it was subsumed into NAMA; NAMA appoint Colm Lundy as portfolio manager. Small circles.
You seem to be well informed Mark!
Any other insider knowledge you’d like to share?