Nama is expected to bring more “mega-deals” to market following the successful sale of its £4.5bn Project Eagle loan book.
The Irish bad bank has selected Cerberus Capital Management as the successful bidder for the NPL, which comprises all of the agency’s loans to Northern Irish borrowers.
This was Nama’s largest deal to date and sources now expect “three or four more mega-deals of more than €1bn this year” as it ramps up its deleveraging to take advantage of strong investor interest.
It is in the market with the €1.8bn Project Tower loan portfolio, which comprises debt lent to investor Michael O’Flynn.
Private equity group Kildare, Blackstone and Lone Star are all thought to have bid for Cork-based O’Flynn’s portfolio, which includes the debt secured on Cork’s Elysian Tower.
Nama has also appointed DebtX for the sale of the €300m Project Spring, a property loan portfolio linked to Irish developer Gerry Conlan.
Running concurrent loan sales is a new tactic for the agency, which until this year would put only one debt portfolio on the market at a time.
Cerberus is understood to have paid around £1bn for Project Eagle, which is secured by 850 properties across Northern Ireland, the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Nama chairman Frank Daly and chief executive Brendan McDonagh said the deal, agreed on advice from Lazard, would “deliver the best result for the Irish taxpayer.”
bridget.o’connell@estatesgazette.com
