Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 18 October 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. Oliver Ellingham:
The reality is that for a portfolio of £1.3 billion, there will be a limited number of buyers with that amount of money available to pay for a set of assets. In Lazard's view, we went to all of the buyers who were capable of writing a cheque for £1.3 billion for a set of assets. Did we advertise the sale in The Irish Times? No, we did not. Did we send an intermediary into the marketplace with the expertise to identify who was available to buy the assets at that price and in the timeframe we had in mind? Yes, we did.