Dukes: Anglo will recover less than half of Quinn loans

THE chairman of Anglo Irish Bank Alan Dukes said he expects the bank to get back less than half of the €2.8 billion it is owed by the Quinn family.

Mr Dukes said, however, that the deal with US insurer Liberty Mutual ensures that the Irish taxpayer will do much better than if this arrangement had not been put in place.

Without the lifting of guarantees within the wider Quinn group that involved the insurance business, he said, it would not have been possible to put the joint venture in place to recover at least some of the monies owed by Sean Quinn and his family to Anglo.

He expects the arrangement with Liberty to be in place for five years, by which time he hopes Anglo will have recovered about 50% of the money owed by the Quinn family.

Securing the joint venture with Liberty Mutual made sense because it has no commercial involvement in the Irish market at this time, Mr Dukes told RTÉ radio.

Much will depend on how successfully Quinn Insurance develops in the next few years and on the nurturing of other companies in the group.

Quinn Insurance is to be taken over in a joint venture by Anglo (49%) and the Liberty Mutual (51%) after a deal was struck with administrators.

Mr Dukes said this deal means that 1,500 jobs in the business are more secure than before.

Quinn Insurance lost €706m in 2009 and this will require a €600m bail out from the Insurance Compensation Fund (ICF).

The Quinn family have questioned how these figures were reached but Mr Dukes refused to be drawn into he controversy.

It is expected that general insurance policies will be hit by a 1% to 2% levy to make up the shortfall. It will apply to general insurance policies, including car insurance and property cover, but will not apply to the life sector.