Project Eagle ‘soared 20%’ since Nama sale

Commercial property prices across a large chunk of the Project Eagle loans in Belfast have soared by up to 20% since Nama signed off on the transaction for €1.6bn just over 12 months ago, the Irish Examiner has confirmed.

The sale of Project Eagle — the codename for the 2014 auction of €5.7bn in distressed property loans in the North — has sparked a furore amid allegations in the Dáil that a Northern Irish politician and “fixers” were to benefit from fees paid to external advisers employed by the winning bidder.

Cerberus Capital used the same US legal advisers, Brown Rudnick, and local Belfast solicitors, Tughans, as rival bidder Pimco before Pimco exited the bidding a few weeks before it ended in April 2014. The bidding has also been controversial because Cerberus, which separately controls another large part of the North’s distressed property, appears to have benefited from a huge uplift in the value of Belfast properties.