Former Nama loan manager sets up firm

A former loan manager at the National Asset Management Agency has set up his own property management company within months of leaving the State loans agency.

Colm Lundy, who was one of 80 portfolio managers at Nama, set up CL Asset Management in May. He described himself as a “property manager” on company records.

Last year the agency investigated Mr Lundy’s connections with property company Newlyn Developments where he worked from 2004 to 2007 and which had bank loans transferred to Nama.

The agency examined whether Mr Lundy had any personal exposure to Newlyn’s debts or connected borrowings and, if so, whether this was disclosed to its agency as staff are obliged to do.

Asked why he had left Nama, Mr Lundy said: “I appreciate the call but I don’t really want to comment.”

A Nama spokesman declined to comment.

The agency also had no comment late last year on its investigation into Mr Lundy’s connections with Newlyn, saying it didn’t comment on staff.

Nama’s spokesman said at the time that it had “strict protocols and rules in place to guard against any conflict of interest involving people working in Nama which include the provision of full, relevant information and disclosure”.

The agency said that a formal investigation would be launched “in any case in which someone working in Nama is suspected of having neglected to make full disclosure or of having breached those rules or supplied incomplete or inaccurate information”.

Mr Lundy’s new business is based in an office on Mount Street in Dublin.

He took a High Court action against Newlyn Developments in 2007 claiming to be owed €8 million over a profit-sharing agreement with the company but the case was settled the following year.

Newlyn Developments had bank loans of €22 million at the end of July 2011, its account show.

Nama’s rules do not preclude it from doing business with former employees or their companies in future.

“There are no restrictions on former employees from dealing with the agency. However, the normal protocols in place require properties to be openly marketed except under exceptional circumstances,” said the Nama spokesman.

There were 23 staff departures from Nama since 2009, when the agency was set up, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said in reply to a Dáil query. There are 227 people working at Nama.