90% of IBRC loan book snapped up by buyers

Only €1.9bn of the €21.7bn par value IBRC loan book will go into Nama following the completion of the sales process.

KPMG’s Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson, the liquidators of IBRC, said the sales process exceeded all expectations with 90% of the par value of the book going to investors.

The last two tranches of the loan books of the State-owned bank have now been divested. Roughly 85% par value of the €9.3bn Project Stone, which was real estate loans originated in the Irish office of Anglo Irish Bank, was sold mostly to four buyers: Deutsche Bank, Lone Star, CarVal Investors and Goldman Sachs.

The other tranche was Project Sand comprising mortgages from the Irish Nationwide book. Roughly 64% of this book went to two buyers: Lone Star and Oaktree Capital.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan rushed through emergency legislation on February 7, 2013 to liquidate Ibrc as part of the restructuring of the €28bn in promissory notes.

Nama issued €12.9bn in senior bonds to the Central Bank in return for a €12.9bn floating charge over the IBRC assets.

When Mr Noonan appeared before the Oireachtas Finance Committee at the beginning of February he said he expected between €5bn and €6bn of par value IBRC assets to go into Nama.

There had been a considerable amount of controversy over the sale of Project Sand.

Opposition parties claimed that if the mortgage book was bought by third party investors, then Nationwide mortgage holders would lose the protection of the Central Bank.

However, the IBRC liquidators said the Lone Star and Oaktree Capital Management had confirmed they would service the mortgages in accordance with the Central Bank’s code of conduct on mortgage arrears.

Commenting on the sales, the Special Liquidators said: “The sales process for the IBRC loans, including their segmentation to meet demand from international buyers, has delivered a very positive result with over 90% of IBRC’s loan assets now sold within 14 months of the bank’s liquidation.”