Irish judge orders record 300 million euro paid to NAMA

Published 09th Nov 2011

An Irish court on Wednesday ordered two property developers to repay over 300 million euros (259 million pounds) each to the country's state-run National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), the agency's largest award to date.

Brothers Raymond and Danny Grehan, who bought a Dublin site in 2005 for a record 82 million euros per acre, were ordered to pay 312 million and 308 million euros respectively.

The debts of the two brother overlap, so the total owed is less than the combined 620 million euros. A barrister representing the brothers said they both consented to the order.

The two brothers, who developed apartments, hotels and fitness centres before Ireland's property boom collapsed in 2008, owe most of the money in relation to guarantees of loans made to their companies.

Created to purge Irish banks of their risky land and development loans, NAMA is one of the world's biggest property groups after acquiring assets ranging from skyscrapers in London's Canary Wharf to farm land in the Irish countryside.

NAMA shelled out just shy of 31 billion euros on loans valued at over 72 billion euros at the height of Ireland's property bubble but even with such a large discount, the agency was forced to take a 1.5 billion euros impairment charge last year.

Source: ' Reuters '

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