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Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Nama chief makes good on Lenihan order not to ‘mess it up'
The late minister for finance Brian Lenihan, who set up the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) in 2009, left five words ringing in the ears of agency chief executive Brendan McDonagh shortly before he passed away 14 years ago this week. 'Brendan, don't mess this up,' Lenihan told McDonagh in their last meeting before he died, the Nama chief recalled to reporters on Wednesday. When Nama took over €72 billion of mainly toxic commercial property loans from five banks for a discounted price of €32 billion, the fear was that it would lose billions. Even when Ireland was at the end of an international bailout programme in 2013, members of the rescue team told Department of Finance officials that Nama would likely end up with a €10 billion shortfall. READ MORE It wasn't helped by Nama overpaying to the tune of €5.4 billion for the loans in the first place – adhering to a long-term economic value method forced upon it by legislation to lessen the holes that Nama transfers would trigger in the domestic banks' balance sheets. Many objectives have been projected on to Nama over the years, such as fixing the housing crisis , by virtue of the swathes of land it controlled; contributing more to the common good; and providing more homes for social housing, even though local authorities ended up accepting only about 2,400 of the almost 7,000 units offered over the years. Nama's remit widened about 13 years ago to deliver thousands of homes and develop land in the Dublin docklands . But Nama's core objective, enshrined in the very Act that set it up, was to obtain the best achievable financial return for the State. It made enemies along the way. Try finding a developer that has much good to say about dealing with Nama officials over the years – even ones that it agreed to work with, while enforcing against others. It's not difficult to find critics, too, in the halls of Leinster House. But it is now on track to deliver a lifetime surplus of €5.05 billion – having upgraded its forecast on Wednesday by €250 million – by the time it is wound down at the end of this year. Adding the €5.4 billion it first needed to recoup to break even on the original overpayment actually brings the total financial gains for the State to more than €11 billion. Lenihan would surely have approved of that outcome.
Irish Times
04-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Zara boss buys Nama's final docklands office block and Dalata says no to €1.3bn offer for hotels
Zara founder Amancio Ortega's investment firm Pontegadea has paid almost €70 million for the last Nama office block in Dublin's docklands – owned in conjunction with Kennedy Wilson – after a decade-long regeneration programme for the area that has delivered 3.8 million sq ft of commercial space and 2,000 homes over 15 sites, writes Joe Brennan. Dalata , the State's largest hotels group, rejected a surprise €1.3 billion cash bid for the group from Swedish peer Pandox, which owns hotels run under the Leonardo brand in Ireland, and a leading shareholder in the Irish company, Oslo-based Eiendomsspar. Joe Brennan reports that Dalata said the offer 'materially undervalues the group and its prospects'. Ireland is the country most exposed to the threat of US tariffs after Mexico and Canada, the OECD said on Tuesday, as it cut forecasts for global economic growth this year. Th US, whose policies are seen as driving much of the uncertainty will be among those worse hit with forecast growth this year now just 1.6 per cent, reports Ian Curran, sharply down on projections just last March. High energy prices and worries over security of supply were costing Ireland Inc foreign direct investment and jobs, IDA Ireland warned in briefing for government, saying the State was losing ground to other EU countries and the United States over the issue. READ MORE Better news for consumers, especially mortgage holders, as the case for another cut in interest rates as the European Central Bank meets this week was strengthened when euro zone inflation eased more than expected, dipping below the ECB's 2 per cent target. Nothing beats a good corporate espionage row and the one raging in the normally staid world of HR software is a humdinger. Deel claims arch-rival Rippling had directed one of its employees to 'pilfer' the company's assets by posing as a customer. The latest claim comes after Rippling alleged earlier this year that a Dublin-based staff member had been spying on behalf of Deel. In his column , John McManus writes that pay levels of chief executives at Irish semistate companies are a soft target in a world where the gap between the pay of bosses and their workers keeps growing wider. Joanne Hunt , meanwhile, looks at the issue of money dysmorphia. If there's a disconnect between how you feel about your financial position and the reality, this may well be you. She goes through the basics you need to bear in mind if you want to have control of your personal finances. Car sales were down again in May but they are still ahead for the year, writes Ian Curran. The same cannot be said for commercial vehicles with buyers reportedly put off by growing economic uncertainty. And while EV sales have rebounded, they're a long way short of allowing the Government to hit climate change targets. Guinness and Three have been named as Ireland's top sponsors as the number of sponsorship deals rose 29 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, writes Colin Gleeson. Industry consultants Onside, which has compiled the review since 2016, said the GAA had a 'very active first quarter', with horse racing and soccer also among 'very active categories'. In Commercial Property, Fiona Reddan reports that the HSE has bought a prime 16-acre development site in Swords, including the former offices of car hire group Hertz. The price? In excess of €20 million. Finally, does owning a barge restaurant float your boat? If so, La Peniche on Grand Canal in Dublin 4 could be yours for around €350,000. If you'd like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to On the Money , the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.
Irish Times
04-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Zara founder snaps up last Dublin docklands project linked to Nama
Zara founder Amancio Ortega's investment firm Pontegadea has bought a 6,344sq m (68,286sq ft) office building in Dublin's south docklands for almost €70 million from US property group Kennedy Wilson and the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), according to sources. The deal to buy Ten Hannover Quay, a grade A office development let out to US financial technology group Fiserv, closed last week, the sources said. It marks Nama's final exit from the capital's docklands, where it had been involved in the large regeneration programme for more than a decade. A spokesman for Nama, which owned 40 per cent of the building, declined to comment, while representatives for Kennedy Wilson and Pontegadea did not respond to requests for comment. Nama, which was set up in 2009 to acquire about €72 billion of risky and distressed commercial property loans from Irish lenders, saw its remit widened about 13 years ago to deliver thousands of homes and develop swathes of land in the docklands that had fallen under its control as underlying loans ran into trouble. READ MORE This included sites previously controlled by Treasury Holdings, developer Harry Crosbie and the now-defunct Dublin docklands Development Authority. Nama would work with partners such as Kennedy Wilson and US investment firm Oaktree, two of the most active buyers of Irish property assets in the wake of the property crash, Singapore-headquartered Oxley Holdings and Irish building contractor Bennett Construction to develop the land. Ford chief Lisa Brankin on accelerating the switch to EVs Listen | 41:35 Nama and its partners have delivered 3.8 million sq ft of commercial space, 2,000 homes, retail, cultural and green space across 15 sites on either side of the river Liffey over the past decade. The sale of Ten Hanover Quay comes just three years after Fiserv signed up as tenants for the entire building, a modern glass-fronted office block integrated into an 1880s docklands warehouse overlooking Grand Canal Dock. Fiserv is paying €57.50 per sq ft, almost €3.93 million in total, a year, with a rent review scheduled for 2027, according to an information memorandum distributed by estate agents CBRE and Savills, who handled the sale of the building, which has a freehold title. Nama, which paid a deeply discounted price of €32 billion to acquire loans from Irish lenders during the financial crisis, had reduced the carrying value of its loan book to €370 million and its investment properties portfolio to €373 million by the end of last September, according to its latest quarterly report. This follows large portfolio sales and Nama working with certain debtors to develop and offload projects over the course of its lifespan. The remains of the agency, together with what remains of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which is home to the remnants of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society, are on track to move to a new resolution unit in the National Treasury Management Agency later this year. Pontegadea, through which Mr Ortega holds most of his 59.2 per cent interest in Indetex, parent of Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear and several other retailers, made its first foray into Ireland's commercial property market in March 2022, paying just over €100 million for 120 apartments at Opus at Six Hanover Quay in Dublin's south docklands. It paid about €225 million for a big logistics investment at Dublin's Baldonnell Business Park, including a centre used by Amazon, about 18 months later. Between those dates, Pontegadea entered and, subsequently, withdrew from talks to buy part of Meta's new Ballsbridge campus in Dublin for about €525 million.
