Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

It is not unusual for us to tell bidders when they submit their bids they must have cash for the bid to be accepted, because we do not want the execution risk of somebody being made the lead bidder and then going off to try to find the money, because that does not work. We try to avoid this as much as possible because putting the portfolio back on the market is very expensive.

With regard to the diligence, we are satisfied we put as much due diligence into the data room as was necessary to allow people make a bid. The important thing with Fortress, which comes back to the earlier question, is Fortress took on Cushman & Wakefield as its property valuers after PIMCO withdrew. If PIMCO allegedly had the benefit of a long period of working on the portfolio, then Cushman & Wakefield may have been working the portfolio for a long time and Fortress would have got the benefit of it.

The major issue is bidders will always like more time and more information, but they must make a call on the price they will pay for the portfolio. We think, and Lazard has also said, there was sufficient information in the data room for people to make a bid. The question is whether they want to step up to the €1.3 billion minimum reserve, and, if so, they then step up to the plate. This is their own call. They have their own views on valuations. This is also in an e-mail I provided to the committee previously. When Michael George wrote to me about getting into the process he said he had $4 billion in cash. The question of him needing to get cash from third parties does not seem to have arisen if he had $4 billion in cash. Someone can always refinance after buying the portfolio from NAMA, which is what has happened with Cerberus.