Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 22 November 2016
Public Accounts Committee
Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed)
10:00 am
Mr. Patrick Long:
Sure. Fortress is a highly reputable, internationally recognised investment firm and Cerberus was genuinely concerned in my view about the competitive threat which it posed. The fact that Fortress at the end of the day found it difficult to cope with the requirement of the process that it should make a cash bid for the portfolio in my view does not undermine the competitive threat which it posed to Cerberus because until the bid deadline Cerberus did not know what Fortress would bid. In fact, as far as I am aware, right until the transaction closed Cerberus did not know the level at which Fortress had in fact bid. There could have been a competitive threat, if Fortress did pose a competitive threat to Cerberus, even though it ultimately ended up-----
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