Blog Archives
Politics and Money – Irish Style
Reilly faces new day in court over nursing home deal gone sour
HEALTH Minister James Reilly faces another court date next week over an investment that went sour and saw him named on a debt defaulters’ list. read full article
independent.ie
2Colleagues fear Perry finished in Dail after €2.5m judgment
JUNIOR Minister John Perry’s allies in Fine Gael believe that he is doomed politically, due to the judgment of almost €2.5m against him. read full article
94Lowry furious after Revenue sends 15 officials to raid home
THE Revenue sent 15 officials accompanied by a garda and a locksmith to carry out a raid at former Fine Gael minister Michael Lowry‘s home. read full article
1Treasury Holdings’ co-founders in line to get €5million in NAMA deal
PROPERTY developers Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett are in line to get almost €5m each in cash under a complex deal with the tax payer-owend National Asset Management Agency and liquid read full article
Revenue inquiry on Irish clients of HSBC with Swiss accounts
Tax authority has collected €30 million from individuals linked to offshore activity read full article
68Undeclared rental income targeted in Revenue crackdown
Landlords responsible for €42 million in upaid tax last year, records show read full article
76McNulty liable for €90m to Nama
Businessman advances what judge describes as mostly ‘technical’ defences to Nama claim for judgment read full article
Cut number of TDs to 100 and save €15m a year – Independent.ie
* ‘Quality in preference to quantity’ and ‘evidence of value for money’ must be the two ‘vitals’ for a reformed new government. read full article
55Tough Budget looms as Central Bank says: stick to austerity path
MORE hairshirt budgets are in prospect after the Central Bank urged the Government not to let up on austerity and Finance Minister Michael Noonan admitted next year’s cuts and taxes wil read full article
McGeever back in prison as judge refuses to reduce bail
BUSINESSMAN Kevin McGeever has been told to go to the High Court if he wants his €12,500 bail terms reduced. read full article
Anglo Irish Bank
Drumm names eight he believes should explain bank guarantee role
Irish Independent
In his latest interview, former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive Mr Drumm again refused to say whether he would return to Ireland to answer questions on the collapse of the lender. The US-based ex-banker said he believes the explosive Anglo tapes were …
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Independent party to investigate source of Anglo tapes leak
Irish Times
The investigation will try to establish if the tapes, published by the Irish Independent last week, came from Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which was established to wind down Anglo’s operations, or KPMG, Anglo’s special liquidators. The recordings …
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Trial of Anglo executives ‘has been jeopardised’Irish Independent
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Certus and Pepper get green light to handle €24bn of NAMA loansIrish Independent
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Outrage on rise in Ireland over ‘arrogant’ failed bank execsCanadian HR Reporter |
200 hand letter to gardaí demanding Anglo charges
http://starlounge.ie.msn.com/
garethmoore. TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE handed formal letters to gardaí at Pearse St garda station this evening calling for charges to brought against three Anglo Irish Bank staff. The letter, as seen by TheJournal.ie, calls for an investigation under section …
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| Noonan warns against ‘contaminating’ Anglo evidence Irish Times Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has warned against “mucking about” with recordings leaked from Anglo Irish Bank so as to ensure the evidence needed for criminal trials related to the failed lender is not contaminated. “The guards are the people who … See all stories on this topic » |
| Gilmore refuses to answer questions on Anglo tapes knowledge Irish Independent TANAISTE Eamon Gilmore has declined to answer calls to say who knew what and when about taped conversations between chiefs at the bust Anglo Irish Bank. Related Articles. Dukes ‘sang dumb’ about Anglo tapes, Dail hears. Also in this section … See all stories on this topic » |
US fund manager who gambled on Bank of Ireland bonds in 2012 earned USD $2.2bn (personally, that is, himself)
You will be glad to have confirmed the identity of at least one bondholder to whom we have paid tens of billions. David Tepper has been named by Forbes as the highest earning fund manager in 2012. He, himself personally, was paid USD 2.2bn (€1.68bn) in 2012; yes, he actually earned 2,671 times Pat Kenny’s 2012 RTE fees. Forbes reports “his flagship hedge fund successfully bet on stocks and other securities at key moments in 2012, posting a net return of nearly 30%. His $15 billion Appaloosa Management has been knocking out annual net returns of about 30% since 1993”
And how is David earning 30% annual returns? We don’t have a detailed breakdown but we’ll remember David here in Ireland after his January 2013 performance on Bloomberg TV, when he told the US audience.
“We invested in the Bank of Ireland… and we bought their bonds, subordinated bonds…They [BoI] wanted to ‘cram us down’ … So we took them to court.. We were gonna go into the English and Irish courts to fight the Bank of Ireland, and fight the Irish Government for that matter…We finally won at the beginning of this year… The debt was trading at 40/50 cents…..So the Bank of Ireland this year, goes and issues a new issue, of the same debt…. a month and a half ago….the debt is now trading at 115..The only reason it is worth buying, is because we fought it, and we won”
Bank of Ireland, the bank into which we have shoveled €4.7bn gross, about €3bn net.
We have no real idea of the bondholders in Anglo, Irish Nationwide, Permanent TSB, EBS and AIB into which we have shoveled €60bn. Yes, there was a partial listing of INBS junior bondholders from Guido Fawkes which Senator Norris tried to read into the Seanad record, and was stopped, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Challenge the government on this and the key defence is “think of the credit unions”, but we know they are suffering circa €15m losses on deposits at Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. The government also claim that because the banks don’t maintain lists and the banks merely pay clearing companies which then make payments to the actual bondholders, that there is no way of knowing the ultimate identity of the bondholders. Well, at least, we know David.
Here’s the video
Best Images of last Week
Best Image from last week Week
Actor and former Culture Ambassador Gabriel Byrne’s fresh and countercultural take on The Gathering 2013, accusing it of being a shamelessly-commercial sham aimed at fleecing Burberry-clad Yanks whilst at the same time, Ireland “didn’t a shit” about the Disapora including the plight of those Irish working illegally in Ireland. His words struck an authentic chord with some, and inspired the brilliant Japlandic who produced the best images of last week
Irony of last Week
On Thursday this week, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny was in Berlin to accept a statuette from a German media association after being named “European of the Year 2012”. The optics just look all wrong in the context of an uncertain bank debt deal, and Germany now presenting us with a new hoop to jump through where we have to demonstrate our uniqueness. But when you consider thatThursday was also the day when the utterly bust and zombified Anglo, or IBRC, paid €24m to bondholders, some or a majority of which commonly believed to have been paid to German banks. €24m will buy you a lot of kitschy statuettes. Or home help hours.
via NAMA Wine Lake.
via NAMA Wine Lake.
Nama sues two businessmen in effort to recover loans of €90m –
THE NATIONAL Asset Management Agency has sued three companies and two businessmen in an effort to recover more than €90 million arising from loans made by Allied Irish Banks for property developments in Dublin.
One of the businessmen, Reginald Tuthill, with an address at Cranmer Court, Whiteheads Grove, London, and a former address at Tower Road, Clondalkin, Dublin, was adjudicated bankrupt in England on August 29th last, the day before the Nama proceedings were served on him, the Commercial Court has heard.
Nama had appointed a receiver over the three companies after failing to be provided with statements of the assets and liabilities of Mr Tuthill and Derek O’Leary – with an address at Cubitt Building, Gatliff Road, London, and formerly of Oakmount, the Birches, Foxrock, Dublin – in the context of a business plan for the companies, the court also heard.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly agreed yesterday to enter summary judgment for about €90.5 million in favour of Nama against two of the three companies but adjourned the application for judgment against the third due to service issues. It was not expected there would be any opposition to judgment against it, he was told.
Judgment was entered against Sandyford Forum Developments Ltd and Blackthorn Securities plc but adjourned against Maycombe Developments Ltd, all with addresses at Oakmount, the Birches, Foxrock, and all in receivership.
On the application of Andrew Fitzpatrick, for Nama, the judge granted summary judgment for some €24.2 million against Mr O’Leary arising from loans and guarantees by him and Mr Tuthill, up to a maximum €24 million, of the liabilities of the companies, plus a facility for some €200,000. A solicitor for Mr O’Leary said he was consenting to judgment.
Because Mr Tuthill was adjudicated a bankrupt the day before the proceedings were served on him, the application for summary judgment for some €25 million against him was adjourned. That sum is made up of some €24 million allegedly due under personal guarantees of liabilities of the companies and a separate loan facility provided to Mr Tuthill to buy two apartments in Smithfield, Dublin.
The proceedings arise from several loan facilities advanced by AIB, including a €41 million facility of December 2008 to Blackthorn to part-finance its acquisition of a five-acre site at Sandyford, with repayment to be made by the end of September 2009 on terms including that repayment would be made from the sale of an office development and car parking spaces at South County Business Park in Leopardstown.
Another €18.85 million facility was advanced to Sandyford Forum Developments in December 2008 to part-finance the Leopardstown development, while a €20 million facility was provided to Maycombe, also in late 2008, to buy a two-acre site in Sandyford.
via Nama sues two businessmen in effort to recover loans of €90m – The Irish Times – Tue, Oct 23, 2012.
via Nama sues two businessmen in effort to recover loans of €90m – The Irish Times – Tue, Oct 23, 2012.
Nama case against Dunne and wife reaches stalemate –
THE NATIONAL Asset Management Agency case against Seán Dunne and his wife Gayle Killilea Dunne reached stalemate yesterday with the lawyers for the developer claiming Nama has no evidence against the couple, while those for Nama were granted more time to seek further documentation.
Nama is seeking to enforce a judgment for €185 million obtained through the Irish courts against the property developer.
Nama, operating as National Asset Loan Management Ltd in the US, filed papers in Stanford, Connecticut, in July alleging Mr Dunne and his wife had “utilised a number of lawyers . . . and shell companies to hide assets from creditors”, and asked Judge Douglas Mintz to freeze the couple’s assets. This request was refused on the grounds the documents provided by Nama were insufficient to prove its argument.
Nama subsequently served papers seeking access to documents from the real estate agency Sothebys relating to property deals in Connecticut that it believes will support its case. Lawyers for the Dunnes had objected to the subpoena but yesterday withdrew that objection.
Lawyers for Nama, who have not yet been able to access the documents they requested in July, had been expecting to argue that case before a judge yesterday morning.
Attorney Peter Nolin, representing Mr Dunne, told the court that all documents falling within the scope of Nama’s subpoena would now be produced.
The attorney representing Gayle Killilea, Philip D Russell, told reporters yesterday that the couple had originally intended to litigate against Nama’s request but subsequently decided against it.
“Sothebys will go ahead and furnish the documents. We walked away from that fight,” he said. Mr Russell went on to say that Nama was on “a fishing expedition” insisting there was no evidence to back up the agency’s claim.
Nama’s case hinges on a December 2010 “statement of affairs and declaration to Nama” signed under oath by Mr Dunne, in which he disclosed information concerning his financial affairs but omitted details of the transfer of his one half-share of an apartment in Geneva to his wife in February 2010, which he sold a month later for Swiss Francs 5.3 million (€4.7 million). The agency also alleges that the couple, operating through a string of limited liability companies, has bought and sold a number of properties in Conneticut using funds diverted from Mr Dunne’s former property empire.
Attorney Peter Nolin yesterday claimed that there were jurisdictional issues relating to the Geneva property and that Gayle Killilea Dunne had bought the Connecticut properties without involving her husband. “She has her own money,” he said.
via Nama case against Dunne and wife reaches stalemate – The Irish Times – Tue, Oct 23, 2012.
via Nama case against Dunne and wife reaches stalemate – The Irish Times – Tue, Oct 23, 2012.
Irish Life sells Nama stake to UK company –
A FORMER Barclays banker who is among the new shareholders in the National Asset Management Agency’s ownership company was involved in a scheme to remove toxic assets from Barclay’s books that a top UK regulator described as “pushing the envelope too far”.
Nama yesterday said Irish Life had sold its 17 per cent stake in the special purpose vehicle that owns the loans agency to London company Walbrook Capital. One of the firms’s three founders is Australian lawyer Michael Keeley, who worked for the structured credit division of UK bank Barclays.
Mr Keeley, as a member of a 45-strong structured credit team at Barclays, was involved in a scheme designed by the bank to move $12.3 billion (€9.4 billion) of toxic credit market assets off the balance sheet of the bank in 2009.
The executives were asked to manage the run-down of the assets through a New York hedge fund called C12 Capital Management in a scheme the bank called Protium.
The scheme was later reversed by Barclays after UK regulators raised concerns with the bank.
Andrew Bailey, the highest-ranking UK bank supervisor, attended a board meeting of Barclays in February and queried the buccaneering culture at the bank.
The Protium scheme was described by the regulator as “pushing the envelope too far”. Details of the intervention emerged in the controversy over Barclays’ role in the rate-rigging Libor scandal which led to the departure of chief executive Bob Diamond.
A spokesman for Walbrook and Mr Keeley declined to comment on Protium, while a Nama spokesman also had no comment.
A source close to Walbrook said Mr Keeley was part of the Barclays team asked to manage the Protium assets but this was led by the bank rather than the team itself.
Walbrook was set up in 2011 by Geoff Broomhead and Simon Haworth who worked with Mr Keeley at Barclays Capital. They left Barclays in 2009 to manage Protium but ties with C12 and Walbrook have since been severed.
The sale of Irish Life’s 17 per cent stake in National Asset Management Agency Investment Limited keeps loans of €74 billion at the country’s “bad bank” off the balance sheet of the Government.
The vehicle was structured to give private investors a 51 per cent stake in Nama’s ownership to satisfy EU accounting rules that the agency’s liabilities were sitting off the State’s books.
Irish Life was an original 17 per cent shareholder in the Nama vehicle with the fund management units of Bank of Ireland and AIB.
The Government’s takeover of Irish Life as part of the bailout of Permanent TSB threatened to bring ownership of Nama’s SPV into majority State control given that the Government had 49 per cent of the Nama vehicle.
Walbrook’s acquisition of the stake for an undisclosed sum, understood to be less than the €17 million Irish Life originally paid, puts Nama’s SPV back into majority private hands.
Mr Keeley, a senior partner in Walbrook, said the decision to invest in Nama “followed a careful assessment of the outlook for the Irish economy and in particular its property sector, which we believe is now close to stabilisation.”
Walbrook said that it invests in long-term credit, property and renewable energy assets.
via Irish Life sells Nama stake to UK company – The Irish Times – Tue, Oct 23, 2012.
via Irish Life sells Nama stake to UK company – The Irish Times – Tue, Oct 23, 2012.
World comes crashing down on Irish developers’ global empire
TWO OF the State’s most ambitious developers, Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett, will see the end of their globe-spanning company, Treasury Holdings, next week after conceding defeat in litigation taken by one of its banks.
Liquidators are expected to be appointed on Tuesday to the insolvent property business by the High Court after the company said it was no longer resisting an application by KBC Bank to have the company wound up over a debt of about €55 million. The rejection of a last-minute offer by US bank Morgan Stanley to buy the company’s debts from the State’s National Asset Management Agency (Nama), which supported KBC’s action, has led to the imminent failure of the group, sources close to the company said.
One of Nama’s top 10 debtors, Treasury has total debts of €2.7 billion, including more than €1 billion with the State loans agency.
Mr Barrett and Mr Ronan have given personal guarantees on a small amount of Treasury’s debts, while Mr Ronan has his own property portfolio and related debts with Nama.
Mr Barrett and Mr Ronan turned Treasury from one of the State’s biggest developers into an international business with projects in Britain, France, Sweden, Russia and China.
Treasury was behind landmark projects, including the five-star Westin and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Dublin and Wicklow, the Convention Centre in Dublin’s docklands, and the Central Park and Spencer Dock office complexes in Dublin.
The hotels and offices will remain open as they are solvent despite the pending liquidation of the parent company. The Convention Centre is owned by the State.
The High Court was told yesterday that, given Treasury’s decision not to fight the winding-up application by KBC, the bank will seek to appoint Paul McCann and Michael McAteer of accountants Grant Thornton as joint liquidators of the company and 16 related companies next week.
Lawyers for the Belgian-owned bank said the winding up of 17 companies was necessary given the scope of Treasury’s property interests.
Nama rejected an offer by Morgan Stanley to buy the group’s debts and an alternative proposal that Mr Ronan and Mr Barrett step aside to allow Treasury be sold by public tender, sources said.
The company felt it had no option but to accept the liquidation of the business as it believed Nama was unwilling to accept any scenario where Mr Ronan and Mr Barrett would remain as owners.
A spokesman for Nama said it had no comment to make.
Relations between Treasury and Nama fell apart earlier this year in a dispute over the agency’s rejection of offers to buy the group’s debts and the decision to seize properties within the group.
Treasury lost a court case in August aimed at stopping Nama.
The court was told yesterday that KBC did not accept an explanation for a transaction in which assets of a subsidiary of Treasury had been transferred to a company in the Channel Islands beneficially owned by Mr Barrett.
via World comes crashing down on Irish developers’ global empire – The Irish Times – Sat, Oct 06, 2012.
via World comes crashing down on Irish developers’ global empire – The Irish Times – Sat, Oct 06, 2012.
Confusion Over NAMA Property Lists
You would think that after the month NAMA has had, with criticism over its sales processes and transparency, that NAMA would at least let us know what new properties have been added to its list of foreclosed property but no, you will need trawl through each of the 1,328 properties now on its website to identify the new ones. The total of 1,328 properties which represents the foreclosure position at the end of August 2012 is up from the 1,281 at the end of July but you can’t deduce from this that 47 new properties have been added.
You can’t even sort NAMA’s foreclosure list by “date added”
So yet again, despite being NAMA’s most sought-after piece of public information – the first list in July 2011 attracted over 100,000 hits on the NAMA.ie website – we must go through the 1,328 properties line-by-line to identify the changes. NAMA doesn’t even issue a press release any more to indicate when its website has been updated. And NAMA wonders why it is the butt of so much public and professional criticism.
via NAMA Wine Lake.
via NAMA Wine Lake.
Nama to repay Euro seven point five billion Euro by the end of next year
The Boss of NAMA Brendan McDonagh said the agency was in a strong cash position and that additional debt repayment was likely before the end of 2012.
“This is a commitment under the country’s agreement with the troika and is important in terms of investor perceptions of Ireland,” Mr. McDonagh said.
Ireland’s beleaguered construction sector represented just six per cent of the entire value to the economy last year, compared with 23pc during the heady days of the building boom in 2006.
This is €7.5bn of Irish bank debt going to pay international banks in the main German for losses incurred by Anglo and other banks.
If these foreign banks lost the money through bad deals, should we be handing over this money to them?
