UBS wins big with €3.8m in fees from Nama last year

Swiss investment bank UBS was the big winner in fees paid out last year by Nama, as it received €3.85m from the agency.

New figures provided by Finance Minister Michael Noonan show that legal firm McCann Fitzgerald received the second highest amount at €1.49m.

The amount paid out by Nama in fees for legal, consultancy, and advisory work totalled €13.14m last year — a 32% jump on the €9.95m paid out in 2013.

In a Dáil response to Fine Gael TD Michelle Mulherin, Mr Noonan said Hogan Lovells International LLP received €852,000 in fees.

Other firms to receive in excess of €400,000 in fees last year included Aon Risk Solutions, which received €649,000, and KPMG, which took €458,000 in fees.

Arthur Cox received €224,000 and PwC netted €182,000.

The amount Nama spent on fees last year rose sharply, having decreased in 2013.

The figures show that fees paid to consultants and other firms in 2013 were down on the €16.47m spent in 2012. The largest payout to consultants took place in 2011, when €70.54m was paid out. The largest proportion of this — €44.5m — was paid to firms carrying out due diligence on bank loans.

During that year, Nama recovered €34.5m from the banks on the due diligence costs.

The figures for 2014 show that the highest proportion of funds was spent on legal fees, with €8.57m spend under that heading; €3.775m was spent on portfolio fees.

The work of Nama has proved to be big business for legal, accountancy, and other professional firms with €153m paid to such firms between 2010 and 2014.

However, Nama was able to recover €64.1m of that amount on loan acquisitions.

The work by the consultants has contributed to Nama generating €24.5bn in cashflows to date and the agency continues to record operating profits after impairments charges.