Whilst the eyes of the property industry are firmly focussed on NAMA’s intentions with its €9.25bn – by reference to November 2009 prices – Irish commercial property loans portfolio, in a market that was worth less than €0.5bn last year, it should be remembered that NAMA has competitors who are also sitting on vast portfolios of loans also.
Sources this morning claim that Ulster Bank is gearing up to offload its €1bn Dublin investment property loans portfolio, with four selling agents being contacted for their proposals. Some of the portfolio will be receivership sales, some will be consensual sales though they’re more likely to be what the Americans call “short sales” – that is, sales of distressed lending by the borrower under the oversight of the lender. The four agents are understood to have until tomorrow, 7th March to respond to Ulster Bank with their proposals and this development may come as news to the “short sellers”. It is further suggested this move comes after Ulster Bank’s parent, Royal Bank of Scotland in London decided to change tack and abandon its original intention to warehouse the loans following a GBP 2bn (€2.4bn) loss for 2011 reported two weeks ago. The move, if confirmed, would indicate a lack of confidence in any recovery in Irish commercial property prices in the short to medium term.
The Ulster Bank portfolio is spread across the capital, but one jewel in the crown is the loan behind 78a Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, the headquarters of State Street Bank in Irelandand which last November 2011 was reported to under consideration by Ulster Bank for a one-off sale. Its developer, Liam Carroll’s Danninger is bust and Ulster Bank was said to be considering several offers for the 175,000 sq ft building – pictured here – with an annual rent roll said to be over €7m. If the latest claim is confirmed, it may now be offered as part of the Ulster Bank portfolio.
And how will NAMA now respond to unexpected competition?
No comment was available from Ulster Bank in Dublin at time of writing.
UPDATE: 6th March, 2012. Ulster Bank has declined to comment on individual cases which is to be expected. It seems that the deadline for agents’ submissions has now been extended to Monday morning next, 12th March 2012. It seems the portfolio totals some 70 loans and includes some from foreclosed developers like Liam Carroll and others whose loans haven’t been foreclosed. The loans are secured on a mix of residential, including one-off houses, and commercial property and are understood to include shopping centres in Dublin and 300 rented apartments in Tallaght and 1/3rd of the portfolio is now understood to relate to Northern Ireland.
NAMA Wine Lake 
Maybe they could set up a QIF :)
Iput the unit price in the..with the mass redundancies,distressed selling,they may be looking for any “breaks” they can get!
“It is understood the lease has another 15 years to run with a break option in 2013. The last rent review was conducted in March 2006. According to industry sources the deal is an “excellent outcome” for IPUT, as it has replaced one blue-chip tenant with another despite the “relatively onerous lease terms”.
http://www.iput.ie/news/article/news-news-article-ulster-bank-takes-more-space-at-georges-quay/
Laura Noonan, in the Independent, attributes properly:
Ulster Bank prepares to sell off €1bn of ‘non-core’ property book
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/ulster-bank-prepares-to-sell-off-1bn-of-noncore-property-book-3041617.html
@WGU, news isn’t copyrighted and different outlets can get at the same news in different ways and you get used to stories being re-reported without credit elsewhere and on an occasional basis, that’s just the nature of the game. So Laura is just being honourable here. However when a news outlet consistently – sometimes day-in, day-out – lifts stories from elsewhere, citing a “source” or unnamed “analyst” or unnamed “economist” which is another outlet, without crediting that outlet, then that isn’t cricket, it’s lazy, weak and vain – in the sense the journalist is pretending to have a source or connection which in truth they don’t – journalism.
Yup.
It’s embarrassing for Laura, in some respects, that her simply being ethical is noteworthy.
The experience of foreign owned banks should be considered when shaping future strategy for Ireland’s banking system. Hopefully Ulster Bank and other foreign owned banks will stick it out.
In the medium term I don’t think banks will open fully owned operations in other countries or buy 100% of existing banks. If a country looks attractive, a percentage ownership makes greater sense (Wilbur et Boi 2011) . I’m sure the UK’s regulator would agree. If so, where will future competition come from?
In this regard, it may make more sense not to roll ILP’s bank into AIB. Or separate EBS out before its infrastructure disappears.
3 bed semi and a ford dodged one here,big day is March 15th,Laura is actually one of the better ones.
It’s all about balance…Striving and thriving….Fantasy and facts!
“Successful property development is about balancing fantasy with facts, mixing research with vision, and combining economics with style. It ought to be a creative enterprise driven by high standards, cooperation, risk-taking and (of course) profit making. Profile Properties and its professional teams strive for and thrive on such things.”
http://www.profileproperties.com/about.whtm
This is a complete volte face by the Ulster Bank. Up to now it has been negotiating loan “restructuring” arrangements with its borrowers whereby the Ulster Bank has been using LTV terms as a basis for claiming “default”.
The bank then shortens the period of many of the loans down to 2 to 3 years and seeks a “fee” of anywhere between 50% to 80% of any upside in value over the loan amount on any subsequent sale or refinancing. The Ulster Bank “in house” recipient vehicle of this largesse is called West Register. This vehicle has also been used to purchase earlier Ulster Bank property disposals. The sales tactic sees the West register purchasing the assets after they have been advertised on the market. The issue, of course, is that there is no market except a cash one and the forced sales are picked up by the bank’s own vehicle at a “knockdown” price.
Now we have the shameful sight of the bank plotting to dispose of its clients’ properties without even notifying them of the fact that it intends to do so. No warning, no information – nothing….. Just a shabby, underhand plot against its customers.
Evidence of New Ulster Bank Strategy(If you could call it 1) in the North West in recent weeks. Could go into detail but our friends at the Bank follow comments on here too
Ulster Bank seems to be in panic mode and totally confused in relation to what it should be doing. It’s not surprising that it is losing money hand over fist if the story of its most recent brainwave that emanated from the plonkers working there is anything to go by.
Towards the backend of 2011 the Ulster Bank offered a loanbook of Irish properties with a circa €350 million face value to Deutsche Bank at …. wait for it……… a MINUS €200,000 payment! In other words Deutsche could have the loanbook for nothing with a €200,000 “sweetener”. The offer was refused on the basis that the loans were in so bad, it would cost more to collect them than could be recovered.
It seems that the bank has learnt nothing and is about to do similar damage to its relationship with its major clients relating to the proposed €1 billion sale of the investment loan portfolio – which it has yet to inform its borrowers about.
It must be the bowler hats that causes damage to the brains residing in soft heads.
They may no friends today,check out Clare Daly’s website,NWL was “tweeting” about it.
Strange times you are living in WSTT,however,there is a planned protest tomorrow,you and the other protestors may have more in common than you think….the enemy of my enemy is my friend ..and all that!
“The Defend Our Homes League has called a protest to take place this Friday at 10.30 am at the O’Connell Street branch of Ulster Bank.”
NWL not trying to usurp you in any way,WSTT and The Socialist Party would make strange bedfellows indeed.
http://www.claredaly.ie/ula-tds-condemn-forced-entry-to-repossessed-home-in-mountrath-co-laois/
off topic a bit
so…..
the ecb wanting more collateral if they extend terms of promissory notes implies Irl would never be able to borrow the money to repay them as is, which implies a second bailout is a given.
Not being an expert on iou’s written in the dark please enlighten me if that is too simplistic.
@JG, Clare’s kinda cute, John. Her heart’s in the right place. I think I could warm to her :-)
@WSTT more of a Mary Lou man myself,but Clare has been impressieve on the VB show a few times,quite eloquent.
Has,Ulster clarified its position in any way,are their any loan provisions regarding sale of the loans?
The mere idea thought of DB jumping into distressed lending in Ireland,must have been extremly short committe meeting,unless is all part of a sinister plot to further alienate the paddys from Europe.
Hi Paddy,it’s Hans from Deutsce Bank you missed a payment,we are taking your house………don’t forget to vote YES…a non-starter at senior level!
Just to whet the appetite, properties on the Ulster Bank “hit” list include Anglo’s London headquarters in Old Jewry and a Bank of Ireland office in Dublin 1.
Backstabbing and dishonourable sharp practice by keeping your clients in the dark about your true intentions is not the way to run a bank. As Greg Smith ex-Goldman Sachs said yesterday as he resigned “It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you.”
Muppets – No, not the clients this time – the bank.
@SFCA Writer,the Irish body politic and commentators are in denial,it’s pretty simple math.
The economy is stalked can not produce enough revenue,for the govt to service AND repay the debt.A second bailout is “guaranteed” so it’s pointless arguing under which entity Ireland will borrow from.None,of the rating agencies will sufficiently endorse or be compelled by any argument to provide investment grades to Irish paper,without the backing of some “entity” IMF/ECB/Brits etc.
As such,no amount of cajoling genuflecting hail well fellow met,laughs and giggles,by Kenny et all will change the math.
Miguel de Cervantes: I’m a poet.
The Duke: They’re putting people in prison for that?
Miguel de Cervantes: No, no, no, not for that.
The Duke: Too bad.
as I thought John
So where is the forward thinking, which is much more useful than denial.
btw china jails poets…watch out ESB workers of 2015, they might be monitoring your wordpress account
@WSTT they still have to find a buyer,New Yorks,Laura Noonan penned a interesting article on the new investors in B of I,last week from page one Sunday Times,ok business section still widely read.
There,is no line up of investors for Ulsters “book”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/business/fairfax-financials-400-million-tax-break-revisited.html?_r=1&ref=gretchenmorgenson
@SFCA writer,they are stuck in the past,NAMA truly has no “vision” they clearly don’t have a treasury division or CFO.Hoarding,cash like group of little old women counting their pennies..the pounds will take care of themselves ..stuff.Events,bad ones mainly continue to interrupt the positive spin the politicians continue to attemp to put out there.
Little things,like say unemployment,inflation,no liquidity,collapsing house prices,mortgage arrears.No credit rating agency will rate Irish sovereign debt at an acceptable level for institutions,basically they should fire Corrigan the head of NTMA for perpetrating this nonsense,and get on with negotiating a second bailout.
Well, who would have think it…. the buyers of the Bank of Ireland allegedly committing a $400 million tax scam! They are obviously well capable of running rings around a bunch of Paddy schoolteachers. (I see we no longer even make the top 100 universities list – no surprise there either).
What they will do to an ex-customs officer and ESB accountant when they create their property fund platform boggles the mind!