Nama generates €16.5bn

Nama has generated €16.5bn in cash and redeemed €7.5bn of senior bonds since it was established in 2009, according to its 2013 end-of-year statement.

The agency was set up by the previous minister for finance, Brian Lenihan, to take over roughly €74bn of development loans from the domestic banks in exchange for just under €32bn in senior bonds.

It generated €5.8bn in cash last year through €3.8bn in asset disposals and the balance through rental income. Nama has also received €1.4bn in interest and payments from the special liquidators of IBRC.

When the former Anglo Irish Bank was liquidated last February, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan announced any IBRC assets not sold to private investors would be transferred to Nama. That divestment programme is ongoing and is scheduled to be completed by the end of February.

Of the total €16.5bn in cash generated over the past 45 months, €10.6bn has come from asset sales including loan portfolios and other assets held as security.

Over the course of 2013, it sold a number of loan portfolios including a joint venture with Starwood Capital and Oaktree capital for the acquisition of the €800m Project Aspen, which consisted of Irish commercial property assets. Nama retains a 20% interest in Project Aspen as part of the joint venture agreement.

The sale of Project Club, which is a €250m portfolio of Irish shopping centres was completed last month. Nama said bids are also in for the €373m Project Holly loan portfolio, which is secured by offices, hotels and land in Dublin and Meath. Kennedy Wilson, Lone Star, Starwood Capital and a joint bid from York Capital Management and D2 Private are in the running for Project Holly.

Final round bids are also in for Project Platinum, which is a portfolio of four Dublin office buildings.

Nama has been embroiled in a spate of recent controversies. The property developer, Paddy McKillen accused the agency of leaking sensitive details to the Britain-based Barclay brothers about his loans relating to the Connaught, Berkeley and Claridges hotels during a legal dispute over control of the landmark properties.

Nama chairman Frank Daly and CEO Brendan McDonagh denied any allegations of impropriety when they appeared before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last month.

An ex-Nama employee, Enda Farrell, has also made a number of allegations of malpractice against the agency, which it denies.

At the end of December, Nama held a cash balance of €4.3bn. It has approved close to €1bn in development funding to complete construction projects in this country.

At the end of 2013, it had delivered 596 units for social housing purposes and it expects another 500 units will be taken up this year by local housing authorities. Another 900 properties are expected to go to social housing over 2015 and 2016.

Overall, it has identified 4,400 properties potentially suitable for social housing.