Nama books €103m profit in first quarter

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) recorded an operating profit of almost €103 million in the first quarter of 2015, its latest quarterly accounts show. This compares with €187 million in the same period last year.

The State assets agency did not record an impairment charge for the first quarter. The profit for the period, after a tax credit of €26.9 million was taken into account, arrived at €129.4 million.

In their letter to Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, Nama chairman Frank Daly and chief executive Brendan McDonagh highlighted “significant” cash generation through its programme of disposals of assets and loans. This generated €1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2015, compared with €1.7 billion in the same quarter of last year.

They added that a further €2.1 billion in cash has been generated in the second quarter, bringing cumulative cash generated since the inception of the agency to €27.1 billion.

The carrying value of Nama’s loan portfolio, as of March 31st, net of the cumulative impairment provisions of €3.5 billion, was €12.5 billion. This is down from €13.4 billion as of the end of 2014. The agency redeemed €1 billion in senior bonds in the first quarter and a further €1.75 billion in the second quarter, bringing the total redemptions to 64 per cent of its original senior bonds.

Mr Daly and Mr McDonagh outlined to the Minister the status of the office accommodation development project in Dublin’s Docklands, where Nama has an interest in 15 of the 20 development blocks. This includes the proposed mixed developments at Boland’s Mill, the office and residential accommodation at Hanover Quay and Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, as well as the construction of a new building with 4,650sq m (50,000sq ft) of office space on Hanover Quay that has been pre-let to the US accommodation platform Airbnb.

Residential housing

Some 1,566 residential housing units out of a target of 4,500 in the greater Dublin area have been completed as of the end of March, they also noted.

Nama is obliged to submit quarterly financial updates to the Minister under section 55 of the legislation that established it in the wake of the banking crisis. The agency has been under fire in recent weeks following allegations in the Dáil by Independent TD Mick Wallace relating to the sale of its portfolio in Northern Ireland in its so-called Project Eagle.