Arthur Cox appointed legal advisor to Nama

Dublin-based law firm Arthur Cox has secured the contract to provide legal services to the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

The agency, which has been set up under the aegis of the National Treasury Management Agency and will be responsible for managing the impaired property loans of Irish-owned banks, had sought a range of expertise and recently appointed HSBC Investment Bank as a banking and financial advisor and PricewaterhouseCoopers as tax advisor following a tender.

Arthur Cox had provided advice to the Government on the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank.

It is understood a significant number of Irish and international law firms had expressed an interest in the legal services contract with a deadline for tenders of June 6th.

Nama will purchase impaired property loans from banks through the issue of Government bonds and will see to repay these debts by selling the assets over a period of time.