Plan to net €500m for national stadium
Financial and management consultant Eddie Hobbs says that if a fraction of the 1.2 million holders of SSIA accounts agreed to switch their savings to a new investment product then €500 million or even more could be raised to fund the development of a national stadium.
Mr Hobbs, who has received undertakings from both ministers that they will study the scheme, said the project has the added value to the Government in that it should not impact on the EU Stability and Growth Pact which limits government borrowing.
Mr Hobbs envisages the establishment of a ‘wrapper’ unit-linked fund secured on the assets of the stadium which would be bought back by the State over a specified time period.
“The investment for punters can be more than just about money. It has a high intrinsic value that can be harvested by linking the SSIA swap over with sport itself. Wrapper investors, as the joint owners, produce their SSIA documents and get a passport to buy a ticket on a first come first served basis, within a short window before general release. To create a secondary market, Capital Gains Tax could be waived allowing investors to sell their policies.”
Mr Hobbs said a Government guarantee on the investment would help provide an equal or better return to investors than from existing SSIA products.
“The only risk is if the government make a mess of things and the stadium is not completed as planned.”
Mr Hobbs says there are 1.2 million SSIA investors, but just over 4% need to be attracted to raise €500 million at the SSIA average of €130 per month.
“A bigger stadium could be built by flexing the scheme. It would appear unwise to bypass the scale of money and goodwill available from the SSIA pool, without exhaustive study,” he said.
Mr Hobbs is to deliver a detailed paper on his proposal to Ministers McCreevy and O’Donoghue in the coming days.
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