Nama accused of engaging in ‘fire sales’ of assets

A call has been made for an independent inquiry into how the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) operates amid claims it has engaged in "fire sales" of assets for less than their real value despite a rising market.

Independent TD Mick Wallace claimed “something is the matter with how Nama has operated” as he gave examples of major profits in follow-on sales of distressed assets once the State agency had disposed of them.

Mr Wallace alleged that the agency was not operating according to the plan it was established under, which was to “wait for some form of recovery before maximising the interests of the taxpayer”. Instead, “for some strange reason” it was engaged in fire sales.

In response, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Nama was dealing with the largest property portfolio in the western hemisphere.

Nama, he added, operated under the Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General, some of whose personnel served on the Nama board, and it regularly appeared before the Oireachtas Public Accounts and Finance committees.

He said Mr Wallace should refer particular cases he had in mind to the two committees.

Mr Wallace said an office block on Mount Street was sold in 2012 to US fund Northwood for €27 million, then sold on two years later for €42 million. “Most of the money was funded by Nama in the first place.”

IFSC building sale

The agency sold the Forum building in the IFSC for €28 million in 2012 to US private equity firm Atlas Capital, which sold it on less than two years later for €37.8 million.

Mr Wallace said that Mr Kenny in opposition described Nama as a secret society that “needed an injection of competence, openness and transparency”. Nothing had changed, he said, and the “drip-feed of questionable deals has begun”.

The TD, a developer, said “the sale of large blocks of apartments for less than it cost to build them is one of the reasons the private sector has not resumed building”.

Rejecting his claims, Mr Kenny said builders now had to put up 40 per cent of the required funds instead of having 100 per cent loans, which “brought the country over the cliff”.