Mr. John Collison:

There has been some reference to that in recent months but we certainly did not believe that. We felt the head start was neutralised, as such, when many of these bidders were invited into the process. We opened up a data room initially for a four-week period and that was extended by a further two weeks. All the bidders were given full details as to how the process would evolve at the very outset. When they were briefed they were told how short the timeframe was going to be. They were told the information they were going to be provided with. They were told that they had to transact in cash and that we had to establish whether they were in a position to write a cheque of that scale. We gave them an opportunity at that point to continue and decide to avail of that opportunity or to opt out, but they were all well aware of the position.

I certainly can recall when PIMCO was advised that the process was opening up to other bidders. It was quite disappointed and certainly at one point expressed the view that many of these other firms had such substantial in-house and external resources that they would swallow up a lot of this information in a short period and that would neutralise any head start, if there was such an advantage conferred on PIMCO. We did not believe there was, but PIMCO was certainly of that view regarding these investors. I was at a number of the initial meetings with the parties that were invited into the process, and on at least probably three occasions the investors said they were living with short timeframes and with limited representations and warranties being provided as part of a loan sale process. They were living with limited information much more. This was the market at the time. Certainly one or two expressed the view that the information that would be provided was greater than the level of information they might have seen on a couple of loan sales that were on the market at the time. This was not us coming up with a brand new process. This was the way the market was evolving at the time.