IBRC sold landmark London building to a debtor who owed it €683m in 2007

The inconsistency in approach by the State in the management of its involvement in the banking sector just serves to show how out of its depth it is.

NAMA as we well know, is precluded by the NAMA Act from selling assets to defaulting debtors. As part of its pre-sale procedures, NAMA gets potential buyers to confirm that they are not associated with defaulting debtors.

On the other hand, there is no such proscription at IBRC, and because Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan won’t tell us, we don’t know the number of properties or loans that have thus far been sold by IBRC to defaulting debtors. Minister Noonan says “I have been advised that it is not possible to compile the type of information requested”

What we do know, is that IBRC recently sold a building on London’s Oxford Street to one of the two companies in the joint venture that originally bought the building with loans from . The buyer was David Pearl’s Structadene. We know from Simon Carswell’s book Anglo Republic that Anglo had an outstanding loan balance of an astonishing €683m to David Pearl’s Vendart in November 2007.

So, has there been 100% repayment of Vendart’s loans, loans which placed David Pearl at number six in the league table of the 23 top Anglo borrowers at November 2007? And if there hasn’t been 100% repayment or if there has been default, then how does IBRC’s action sit with the NAMA framework which proscribes sales to defaulting debtors? At this point, we don’t know.

NAMA debtors who find themselves unable to buy NAMA assets might be justified in feeling discriminated against.