Mr. Willie Soffe:

We would normally appoint a company to manage the sale and the process would be much more open. In this particular case, as was pointed out by our chairman, Mr. Frank Daly, on 29 September, there were special circumstances. It was the view of the Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government that we should not be seen to be selling off assets or disrupting the economy of Northern Ireland and that this should be a confidential, as far as possible, and discreet sale. It is not unusual in the marketplace - my colleagues would have more experience than me of this - to have this sort of limited sales process. Lazars advised that it was not unusual. This had to be a time-bound and focused sale. It would have been unthinkable in the circumstances pertaining in Northern Ireland to spend up to 12 months trying to complete a sale. Therefore, we had this focused process which is not unusual.

At the end of the day, nine very substantial bidders, representing approximately 90% of the capacity in purchasing this type of sizeable loan throughout Europe and the UK, had an opportunity to bid. They had expertise of being able to get and analyse the information that would be available in a data room. Mr. McEnery has something to add.