Anglo and Irish Nationwide have cost us €34bn so far, so the nation has a very large stake in ensuring that we get back as much of that money as possible now that the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation is being liquidated. Unfortunately, a curtain is being drawn across the liquidation and we should all be concerned at what is happening behind that curtain.
Finance minister Michael Noonan has been refusing to provide information about IBRC for some time, he wouldn’t give us a breakdown of its legal costs, in fact last year, he wouldn’t even confirm its total legal costs, he refuses to provide us with the accounts for IBRC for the six months ending 31st December 2012 which means the most up-to-date accounts are for the first six months of 2012 and we believe that IBRC now has about €16bn of loans which it is presently valuing in advance of being offered for sale.
We know that right now, borrowers at IBRC are trying to refinance loans and we were given to believe that borrowers refinancing their own loans would be paying IBRC 100% of the amount due. If borrowers were unable to refinance their loans, they were to be offered to the market and if they couldn’t fetch a minimum independently-valued price, they were to be transferred to NAMA. The Special Liquidator of IBRC is KPMG.
Denis O’Brien and Paddy McKillen have recently been in the news because of injunctions they have sought to prevent the Sunday Times publishing information about them. Both are understood to be major IBRC borrowers with Paddy’s personal loans reported to be €300-370m and his corporate loans reported to be €550m and in April 2012, the Sunday Independent reported that Denis O’Brien’s loans at Anglo in 2009 were €833m but that these had fallen to “under €500m” in April 2012.
This week in the Dail, Minister Noonan was asked to confirm the value of loans refinanced to date since the IBRC liquidation announcement on 6th February 2013 and to assure us that any loans refinanced were 100% repaid. The response from the Minister was that this information is commercially sensitive! But why should repeating a previous statement that loans would only be refinanced 100% be “commercially sensitive” unless borrowers were refinancing loans at less than 100%? And why would an overall total of refinancing in the 75 days be commercially sensitive?
Does this look iffy to you?
The parliamentary question and response are here:
Deputy Pearse Doherty: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will confirm the value of loans at Irish Bank Resolution Corporation that have been refinanced out of IBRC between 6 February 2013 to date; and if he will confirm that in all cases, the refinancing was for 100% of the outstanding amount on the loan inclusive of all amounts due.
Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan: I have been informed that the information requested is commercially sensitive and it would not be appropriate for the Special Liquidators to release such information.
Hi – you have any comment on the European Commission’s remarks about the cost of IBRC liquidation being more than estimated up to now? I know you have dealt with this possibility a number of times in the past. And their remarks about payment of AIB dividends on preference shares?
Best wishes.
Ann Cahill.
ann@anncahill.com
Europe Correspondent Irish Examiner.
0032 485715453
Twitter: @quizzicalbrow
@Ann, Hi Ann, you’re referring to the EC Spring Forecast published this afternoon and Ireland’s is available here
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/eu/forecasts/2013_spring/ie_en.pdf
I think they’re referring to the €933.775m that was paid from the Exchequer to IBRC (in special liquidation) in March 2013 which was part of the cost of the accelerated winding down of IBRC. This cost was flagged on 7th February 2013 as the €1bn of additional cost in 2013. I don’t think there’s anything more to it at this stage, but the view on here remains that the KPMG estimate of it recovering 60c in the euro on the sale of IBRC’s loans is fanciful, and that there will be an additional €1-3bn of unplanned cost in 2013.
Will look at the AIB dividend but I do know that Deputy McGrath asked a question about the imminent payment of €260-280m of preference share dividends due in May 2013 and their impact on our 99.8% holding. Min Noonan confirmed the dividend would be paid in ordinary shares but as we own 99.8% of AIB already, the impact would be minimal. Will check what Olli means though.