In response to a question from Sinn Fein, NAMA has this morning provided a geographical analysis of the advances it is providing to developers; you’ll recall that NAMA is allowed, under the NAMA Act, to provide up to a total of €5bn to developers in additional lending to help finish out projects and maximise the amount that can be recovered on the original loan. NAMA has provided a split of it approved advances – totalling €980m – and a split of its actual drawn-down advances – totalling €740m – for the Republic of Ireland,Northern Ireland,Britain(which NAMA confusingly calls “UK”) and “other locations”. NAMA has provided % splits, the following table shows NAMA’s information together with calculated € values.
The table above also shows the split of NAMA’s assets by reference to NAMA’s acquisition values – totalling €31.8bn, and a split of the locations of NAMA’s foreclosed properties; both sets of figures are extracted from the NTMA’s recent investor roadshow presentation, pages 68-69, available here.
These figures will not make anyone happy. Britain has gotten the lions-share of the drawn-down funds but €385m is unlikely to make much difference to the UK’s €1.8 tn economy. However the Republic of Ireland where 57% of NAMA’s assets by acquisition value are located has got just 39% – when you consider that we have 440,000 on the Live Register and more than 310,000 unemployed, you’d have to wonder why NAMA has been so slow to deal with unfinished projects like the intended Anglo HQ in north Dublin Docklands (pictured above) – NAMA has apparently been faffing about with the sale of this building for over six months, in October 2011 it said it expected to make a decision in November and three months later, there’s not been a dickybird – the Central Bank of Ireland, BNY Mellon and others are said to have been seriously negotiating for the property.
Northern Ireland politicians will be wondering why, with an estimated 5% of the NAMA portfolio by reference to estimated acquisition values, that only 1% of new advances is being spent there – bad enough that the Republic has welched on its promised funding for the A5 road between Derry and Omagh but now, its so-called “bad bank” is seemingly avoiding investment as well.
NAMA is presently sitting on a cash mountain of some €3bn. NAMA pays interest on its bonds at the six month Euribor rate, currently just over 1% per annum. NAMA has a commercial remit to maximise the return on its assets, but you’d really have to ask, if the Agency is unable to find a use for its cash mountain that delivers more than a 1% return, why can’t the Agency find commercial projects? The Agency says “there is strong reason to expect that commercial prices will stabilise this year”, so what’s holding the Agency back?
NAMA Wine Lake 
Nobody will touch the Anglo building because of the infrastructural costs attached to developing it. The developer has to prepare the infrastructure for a large swathe of the North Quays to enable access to the building. The sums just don’t work – unless NAMA wants to go into the speculative development business on the North East Dublin Quays. ANd that means laying out large sums to prepare the adjacent sites with no hope of return for many years.
Unlike the 260,000,000 acquisition loan for BPS, to REO/Treasury that has just like that,become 324,000,000….in fairness NAMA(Irish taxpayer) are only in the saddle for half.The “sums” sure as hell,don’t work on that piece of crap that NAMA,on behalf of the Irish Taxpayer,has been shoveling money at like a bunch of thick paddys.
Who makes these decisions,what metric do they use,warm and cuddly feelings or what,if “Mulcahy” likes ya?
@NWL
“NAMA is presently sitting on a cash mountain of some €3bn.”
With at least 100,000 building workers out of work and thousands of unfinished buildings in the country, this is sheer insanity.
Peter Bacon last night (Priimetime) made the very reasonable point that NAMA was supposed to have been a National Asset Management Agency, not a debt collection agency either for the banks or the ECB.
The solution to Ireland unemployment problem and its uncompleted building problem is staring Ireland in the face and NAMA has the cash resources to resolve both.
What is the matter with government? or NAMA?
[There is only one negative, which is not a negative to the economy. Such an approach will force down rents.But that would be good for the economy.]
@Joseph, fair points. Sinn Fein (below) has reacted to the geographical split of NAMA’s spending and alludes to those points. I hope they and others bring pressure on NAMA, so that the apparent no-brainer of using 1% money to invest in projects which deliver 1%+ per annum instead of redeeming its bonds, is examined.
http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/22553
Strange days indeed when SF are the economic “realists”.
It’s courtesy of some great questions tfrom Pearse Doherty,that we know this vital information.NTMA/NAMA still act and think that their stakeholders are bunch of thick paddies and should be kept from the truth.
Still no idea what the money is actually spent on?
Payments to other creditors,taxes,salaries for senior executives,travel ?
Where else but in dear old dirty Ireland could a govt, agency,allocate and spend almost 1,000,000,000 without any procurement policies,evaluation by external committee,and begrudgingly released the numbers.
So who got the almost 1 billion,when and what did they spend it on ?
Why project A over project B,asset category be usefull too,residential or office,anyone know or care ?