Investor fights NAMA decision to acquire loans

A LEGAL action by property investor Paddy McKillen with crucial implications for the work of the National Assets Management Agency has opened with a claim that NAMA’s decision to acquire €211 million loans from Bank of Ireland to Mr McKillen involved a “total” and “unprecedented” abrogation of his rights.

Mr McKillen claims there is no basis for NAMA’s view the total exposure of himself and his companies of €2.1 billion through loans from the five participating institutions in NAMA represents a “systemic risk” to the banking system here justifying the loans’ acquisition. He claims his loans are fully performing and unimpaired.

With 15 of his companies, he has brought judicial review proceedings in the High Court claiming the BoI loans’ acquisition is unjustified, unfair, breaches his constitutional rights to property and fair procedures and breaches the February 2010 European Commission decision approving the establishment of NAMA on grounds that the decision relates to acquisition of loans from “impaired” borrowers.