Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure & Reform Paschal Donohoe and NAMA Chairman Frank Daly at the launch last April of NAMA’s Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2018.
Irish Tax Payer writes:
A number of news reports have declared that NAMA is on on track to achieve its overall objectives and is estimated to return a €3.5bn profit to the exchequer.
Ignoring the obvious questions of whether the €3.5bn is really a profit, when it won’t come close to recovering the €74bn nominal value of the loans. Or whether NAMA’s ‘objectives’ actually contributed to the current rental and housing crises we are experiencing.
Instead let’s look at the “return” NAMA is making.
If we take it at face value that it will generate a profit of €3.5bn over its initial €32bn investment, that is an 11% return.
Not bad, right?
Or is it?
Nama was set up in 2009, so that’s only 1.1% return a year. Not great.
How about the private investors that purchased the assets from NAMA, how are they getting on?
Homebuilder Glenveagh Properties PLC, has a gross margin of 18.2%. The company is targeting a 20% margin in 2020.
Cairn Homes the listed housebuilder’s operating profits surged by 267% in 2018.
Profits at Pepper, the loan servicing company, were in excess of €16m for 2018 which was up 186% from €5.6m a year earlier.
And finally figures published by the Government’s show that the dividends paid by the four listed REITs (Green, Hibernia, Yew Grove and Irish Residential Properties I-Res) grew to €93.49 million last year from €9.95 million in 2015, a TENFOLD increase in four years.
Doesn’t look so impressive now?
Fight!