No, nothing to do with Paddy Shovlin who is biding his time in Earls Court ahead of his discharge from bankruptcy in May 2013. One of Northern Ireland’s wealthiest families has recently launched what is heralded as “one of the premier privateer race teams” which races Ferraris in European races. When they say “privateer” they’re referring to what the dictionary defines as “a competitor, esp in motor racing, who is privately financed rather than sponsored by a manufacturer” rather than officially sanctioned pirates.
Sorbus Racing features contributions from Peter and Shamus Jennings, the website saying “the father-son duo of Shamus and Peter Jennings bring the perfect mix of experience and youthful flair. A successful Go-karting background as well as a natural talent for track driving keeps the team at the front of the grid.” 2013 is the first season when the racing team will compete, The Jenningses feature amongst Northern Ireland’s wealthiest families and in 2010, Shamus Jennings was said to have been worth GBP 166m (€195m). Shamus is classified as being in “property”
In February 2013, the BBC reported that NAMA had placed an English shopping centre owned by a company controlled by Shamus and Francis Jennings.
There has been flurry of contacts received on here which complain about the Jenningses being in hock to NAMA and still racing about the place in Ferraris. But, just because a developer has loans in NAMA, doesn’t mean he is restrained in his personal life. Michael O’Flynn is a NAMA Top 10 developer but (a) it is understood his loans are amongst the 15% of NAMA loans that are performing and (b) Michael famously didn’t provide personal guarantees. So, it is possible that a loan may only be enforced against a specific property or against a specific limited liability company, which may leave individuals free to use their personal wealth in an unfettered manner and there is no evidence of the Jenningses having personal liability to NAMA. The NAMA chairman, Frank Daly has said “the jets, yachts, Bentleys or whatever are not supported by NAMA and in many cases we will insist they are sold by NAMA to reduce the level of indebtedness”
Still though, you’d have to wonder if the Jenningses were living on this side of the Border if NAMA would not be bringing pressure to bear to cut back on the Ferraris. In March 2012, it emerged at an Oireachtas Good Friday committee hearing that NAMA is more than three times more likely to foreclose on developers in the Republic than in Northern Ireland, though to be clear, there is no evidence that the Jenningses loans – other than the one relating to the Kendal Riverside shopping centre in northern England referred to above – are non-performing.
NAMA Wine Lake 
What happened to will go to the ends of the earth to get the taxpayers money back. You should see what our local nama devoloper has just bought himself out here in Meath a nice 131 MH merc to travel around in and laugh at the fools that are paying for it
i have just been talking to a young man in the depts of despair. He was awarded a social welfare payment of 180 somthing euro.The family adjusted their budget accordingly(they were going to get oil this week)His wife works and in common with a lot of young people are in debt.He suffers from depression and his family constantly worry. He got payment for one week. This week nothing——a mistake was made awarding the measly payment.Sorry young man you have to see our doctor. He is attending a physiciatrist already.This is the reality of peoples lives out here and we have to see namaed developers driving ferraris and mercs and people telling young people they will just have to suck it up. I, for one,am getting really angry. I am not alone.I think it is time,we the people stand up.I ran an organisation in the 1980;s looking for tax equity. Now I think we need one looking for justice for the ordinary Joe.Anyone out there feel the same?
Count me in. I was listing to joe Duffy today and how the bank told one man not to pay any money into the church collection on Sundays and the money should go towards his mortgage. Time to stand up people and take back our country. I for one have told the bank where to go and if they want to bring me to court that’s fine. The first witness I will call is the minister for finance and ask how much of the 9 billion that was given to the banks went towards my mortgage and if the answer is none then why not. I have paid my taxes like Mr Dunne so if its good enough for him to call it quits then why not me. Then I was call the head of the revenue to find out if my bank has received a tax write off on my non performing loan and if so why are the banks looking for me to pay it off then I will call a firm in the USA who actually bought my mortgage from my bank to find out how much they paid towards my home and finally I will call my bank manager to see what light he can through on the fact that he sold me mortgage protection for ten years at a cost of €324 pm because I was self employed and high risk only to discover when I became unemployed I could not claim because I was self employed. So basically what I am saying is there is a good chance your home has already been paid for not just once but twice or maybe even three times and a fourth if your insurance was lawfull so as I say you can keep you pensions and benefits but I am keeping my home and if that fails I am off to newry for 12 months and you sir minister shatter can wait and see if the bank veto anyone after 3 years and extend there term of punishment to 8 years. Now remember next sunday at mass not to put any money in the basket as the lads need it for the pensions and perks and god is all forgiving unlike the banks
So far as I’m aware the situation with the Jennings is a bit like this:
They sold their engineering firm to some blundering Aussies at exactly the right time and cashed in a prime London asset (Cromwell Hospital) at the same point. That got them the fat end of £200m.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7300673.stm
The bulk of this was kept as ‘personal money’ – only a small amount of this was recycled as equity into their development company. It’s now called Valto and is funded by Ulster Bank to the tune of £120m.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20889443
There are no PGs – so therefore they are quite free to enjoy a world of Ferraris, private planes, Scottish sporting estates, racehorses and rare books.
That’s fine and the best of luck to them as long as johny and Mary tax payer don’t end up paying for the section of there business that they don’t want
the liquidator of IBRC is getting a current valuation of the loans currently held. My understanding is (I could be wrong–WSTT?)that the liquidator is charged with selling them to the highest bidder even if the highest bidder is the previous owner of the debt .Meanwhile Dan and my young friend can go whistle.What have we come to?
@CC. My understanding is that KPMG’s current intention is to value the loans, package those under €10 million into a number of loan portfolios and sell them to the highest bidders. it is anticipated that the borrowers will have an opportunity to buy their loans at the current market value. The whole process is anticipated to take longer than the 4-5 months originally anticipated.
But the short answer to your question is “yes”. the borrower will be able to purchase the loans if they are the highest bidder.
I’m amazed at the ignorance of the bloggers to this site when it comes to business and commerce. I’m no supporter of developers who raped the system ruthlessly supported by bankers who thought their remit was to dole out as much money as fast as possible to developers they entertained to days out at the Curragh, Croagh Park and Cheltenham pleading for them to take their loans so they could earn big bonuses for themselves, fees for the bank and Hugh fees for the bank from hedging interest rates.
The reality is there is a principle called Limited Liability (LL) which has been around for hundreds of years which has a whole section of law around it caled Company Law.
Limited Liability means that the owners of a Limited Liability company are exposed solely to their investment in the company, unless they give personal guarantees for loans to the company etc.
Banks lending know the investment warnings,which are that Investments can go up as well as down, so if these managers in the banks lent money to companies secured on the assets and with no personal guarantees then they took a commercial risk with their eyes open.
What should have happened was that the Irish Government should have let failed banks go bust and not dished out citizens funds, without a national referendum, to bail them out.
But if the banks went bust wouldn’t nearly every one in Ireland have lost their deposits except of course for Camella’s young man above on social security, maybe he would have had to get a job like most other people and work for a living.
There are two types of developers, those with personal guarantees who can quite rightly be referred to as being Nanad and those without personal guarantees who wisely limited their exposure to future unknown events, who are not Nanad and who with regret and forced on them by Nama returned their secured assets to the lenders who wisely or unwisely set the loan parameters and now must live with the consequences of their nested loans, good or bad.
I agree fully with you sir about the ignorance of bloggers on this site and you for one are the most ignorant I have come across.
We all understand the workings of limited liability which covers your arse when you run a company but do you understand limited liability dose not apply when you as a director have traded recklessly and then fraudulently transferred your assets to your family and friends to put them beyond the reach of receivers and maybe you are right that that gentleman on social welfare that you mention should get a job but please tell me where there is on available that gives anyone dignity and a decent wage in this country and I will apply myself
This country is ruined because of corrupt devolepers and bankers whether you like it or not and do not try to turn this on that poor gentleman on social welfare through no fault of his own
MR.Burke—my young friend would love to be in a position to work and he is not on socialwelfare Take the time to read comments first in future. It is ignorant people like you who are driving young people to despair resulting in the huge suicide rate we have in this country. Maybe your problem is we understand a bit more than you would like. Thanks wstt and Dan