NAMA is presently offering for sale €1bn of your assets. It has package together two loan portfolios – one relating to the loans of developer David Courtney and that is called Project Aspen and contains €810m of loans and the other relating to the loans of developer Eamon Duignan and that is called Project Club and contains €230-330m of loans, depending on your source.
But make no mistake about it – despite the exotic sounding sale of loan portfolios with project names, these are €1bn of your assets which you have paid for.
Last week, NAMA came in for some criticism for not providing potential purchasers with up to date valuations of the loan portfolios. UK commercial property portal, CoStar reported that
“Failure to supply this information is considered something of a false economy by NAMA, as imposing this additional extra due diligence on prospective bidders is ultimately factored in as part of discounts tabled for the NPL which can result in a net lower offer.”
This week in the Dail, the Sinn Fein finance spokesperson challenged Minister for Finance Michael Noonan about the apparent failing.
Despite industry criticism, Minister Noonan falls back on the old reliable “the ultimate objective of maximising sales proceeds” without providing any defence to the specific criticism. NAMA’s conduct with the sale of these two loan portfolios will be closely followed on here.
The full parliamentary question and response are here:
Deputy Pearse Doherty: To ask the Minister for Finance the reason the National Asset Management Agency has not provided potential purchasers of its Project Aspen and Project Club loan portfolios with standard valuations; and if such an omission is considered to be detrimental to the prospects of NAMA maximizing income from the disposals.
Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan: NAMA advises that methodology and strategies applied in the case of any given loan sale is determined after consultation and discussion with the appointed loans sale advisor. The approach adopted in any particular case will be determined by the ultimate objective of maximising sales proceeds.
NAMA Wine Lake 
Anyone involved in the acquisition of loan assets will confirm that despite co stars commentary, bidders expect to undertake due diligence outlays at indicative stage bidding and significant cost at final round. The quantum of dd, impacting on cost is determined by the bidder in accordance with their investment strategy and their familiarity with the asset class. It would be grossly inappropriate for NAMA to front up with anything more than what they have in Project Aspen as they have undoubtedly invested a significant amount in pre sale particulars.