Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, it was I who initially received the unsolicited expression of interest for the NAMA Northern Ireland loan book, via the then Northern Ireland Minister for Finance, Mr. Sammy Wilson, from Brown Rudnick on behalf of its client, PIMCO, on 24 June 2013.

On 9 July 2015 I published on the Department of Finance website both the representation from the Minister, Mr. Wilson, the Brown Rudnick approach on behalf of PIMCO and my own response to the Minister, Mr. Wilson. My officials also provided these documents to the Committee of Public Accounts. The Brown Rudnick letter suggested a semi-exclusive sales process which considered a number of suggestions regarding the future management of the portfolio for the Minister, Mr. Wilson, to consider. This would not typically be a cause for concern. A buyer will often seek a closed or exclusive sales process because it is in their interest to remove competition and increase their chances of success. Therefore, while it may be somewhat naive to suggest such an approach to NAMA, it is not surprising and gave me no cause for concern, as I was aware NAMA would favour conducting an open market process for any sale process.

In my reply to the Minister, Mr. Wilson, on 25 July 2013, I advised that Brown Rudnick should approach NAMA directly with its expression of interest and clarified that NAMA would not run an exclusive process but would have to run a competitive and transparent sales process. At that time, I also referred the letter I had received to NAMA for its information. NAMA subsequently received a third party approach on behalf of PIMCO to sell the loan portfolio on an exclusive basis in September 2013. Following this expression of interest, NAMA, in line with its well-established policy on asset and loan sales, instigated a competitive market sales process in February 2014. NAMA appointed Lazard, a major international investment bank, in January 2014 to advise on and oversee the sales process for Project Eagle. Based on its assessment of the market, Lazard invited eight other major global investment groups, alongside PIMCO, to participate in the process.

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