SPECIAL PURPOSE VEHICLE:THE NATIONAL Asset Management Agency (Nama) confirmed yesterday it had secured three private sector investors in the special purpose vehicle (SPV) being used to keep the cost of the bad bank off the national balance sheet.
Irish Life Assurance, New Ireland and “major pension and institutional clients” of AIB Investment Managers have invested €17 million each for a combined 51 per cent shareholding in National Asset Management Agency Investment Ltd, the official title of the SPV. Nama holds the remaining 49 per cent of the company.
Last year the European Commission, through its statistical office Eurostat, approved the SPV as a method of ensuring that the cost of the loans was not added to the national debt. This is because it is majority-controlled by the private sector.
Nama confirmed yesterday it expected to acquire a total of €81 billion in development and property loans.
Applying the 47 per cent discount applied to the first tranche of loans, the State will pay a total of €43 billion for these loans.
According to a statement by Nama, it will retain a veto over all decisions of the SPV which are “not in accordance with the objectives of Nama as specified under the Nama Act”.
It is understood the €100 million invested in the SPV will be used as working capital for Nama, which can borrow up to €5 billion to complete development projects.
The establishment of the SPV ensures the Government avoids a breach of the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact, which limits the amounts that euro zone states can borrow relative to their GDP.
