The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) has pledged to wind up its activities no later than end-December 2025 – fifteen years after being established as a conduit to sort out Ireland’s bust banks.
Presenting its annual results for 2021, the agency said that during the period 2022 to 2025 it will continue its deleveraging activities, including the management of remaining loans and secured assets, in order to maximise disposal proceeds.
In addition, Nama will continue to provide funding for commercially viable residential development on prevailing market terms. The agency said it aims to facilitate the delivery of 1,800 residential units between 2022 and 2025, subject to commercial viability.
Other tasks involve managing residential development sites in preparation for their sale, and maximising the number of residential sites that are ready for future development through the achievement of planning permissions.
Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, commented: “I am pleased to note the increase of €250m to Nama’s projected lifetime surplus, now forecast to be €4.5bn. €3 billion of this surplus was transferred to the Exchequer by the end of 2021, with a further €500m expected by the end of 2022.”
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Average pay and pension remuneration for Nama’s 145 employees in 2021 was €126,000.
The organisation’s annual report notes that 33 staff availing of voluntary redundancy will receive an average of €97,000 in redundancy and gardening leave payments.
Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh stated: “Our profit in 2021 is the result of long-term value-add strategies implemented by Nama over many years. It is our eleventh year of profitability in a row but the size of our profit is remarkable in the context of the late stage of our operations and the much smaller portfolio that we are now managing.
"Our performance reflects our commitment to delivering much-needed new homes, to completing our vision for Dublin Docklands successfully, and to achieving an orderly wind-down of the agency over the coming years.”
When it was established, Nama bought bad loans from banks at a discount. Thanks to the recovery in property values since Ireland’s property crash in 2009, the agency will have made a profit of c.€5 billion on those distressed loans by the time it ceases operations.
Nama acquired loans for €31.8bn which had been marked down to €26.2bn at the time of acquisition. The extra €5.6bn paid over to banks was in the form of state aid to banks funded by taxpayers.
The agency repaid the last of the €30.2bn Senior Debt in October 2017, and repaid the last of the €1.6bn Subordinated Debt in March 2020.
