Results 7,041-7,060 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Obviously when the assets were transferred to NAMA there were significant haircuts before they arrived.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: As I have limited time I wish to focus on particular questions.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: The very fact that the assets in regard to Project Eagle were a loss over and above the amount that was paid for them by NAMA, if we could use that terminology, that would have been unusual in that most would have achieved the amount that they were transferred for or more. Does Mr. Mulcahy believe errors were made in their valuation at that stage or did they lose value?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: If Mr. Mulcahy had been on the other side of the process whereby one bidder got access well in advance of others would he see that as an advantage?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: It was a very sizeable portfolio. Teams had to be put together to look at the information when they were given access to the data room. Was the three weeks that others were given not a very short period when the process accelerated in 2014?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Mr. Rowntree was very surprised at the change in tack from the sale of assets to the bundling and sale of the loans. He said he would never bid blind and PIMCO appeared in the first instance to have indicated an amount almost blind. It reverse-engineered. It looked at what was publicly available. Would Mr. Mulcahy have taken that approach? Would he have bid blind to purchase something or...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Why was there such a rush when it became public? There was an opportunity then to maybe break up the portfolio. It was not all located in Northern Ireland, some assets were more valuable than others and I understand that it needs to be mixed. Why the rush? Why not go back to the drawing board? Why was there such a rush to sell this portfolio at that point?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Mr. Mulcahy describes it as a superb deal. If that was the benchmark for all NAMA’s deals, the so-called profit - I say so-called because when one looks at the par value, it is not a profit - and if it had been applied to other deals, the profit that NAMA talked about making would have been a substantial loss. The 55 top loans were valued some time earlier. Would that not have...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Mr. Mulcahy is talking about Northern Ireland assets but 50% of those assets were not located in Northern Ireland.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Yes, exactly.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Ms Finan is in the unique position of having two dimensions to her role in that she was on the Northern Ireland board and the board of NAMA. Ms Finan seems to recall that the discussion of the PIMCO bid and the Project Eagle portfolio occurred in the latter part of 2013 but according to the minutes she appears to have been at the meetings. That seems to conflict with the recollections of...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Can Ms Finan recall the nature of the discussion?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: When Mr. Rowntree appeared before the committee he talked about the work that was done in the University of Ulster, particularly on the residential side. There was an expectation that the Northern Ireland portfolio would be worked through and it was a big surprise when there was a change in approach. That appears to have been known by Mr. Rowntree, or it appears to have been discussed,...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Obviously the discussion at the NAMA board would have happened much earlier than that.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Would the witness have been aware that a bid was being made by PIMCO and that these loans were being bundled into Project Eagle in advance of the board meeting?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: This was a change in approach. NAMA had deviated from the approach it has taken up to then. Would this not have jumped out at the witness?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Were any contrarian views expressed at the board as to whether this was a good idea and whether it would maximise the return?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: What does the witness remember about this one?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: It is obvious that Cerberus is quite careful with money, particularly in light of the £2.8 million in dispute, which the Comptroller and Auditor General has identified as approximately 20% of the £15 million paid to Brown Rudnick when Cerberus already had other advisers. That is evident and I presume Mr. Neporent would accept this. It is almost a rhetorical question. I will move...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (17 Nov 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Cerberus knew that PIMCO had exited the process and it would have known that PIMCO had experts available to it, of which one was Brown Rudnick. In his opening statement, Mr. Neporent mentioned Brown Rudnick offering its services to another bidder so Brown Rudnick obviously knew there was another bidder to whom it could go if Cerberus did not take its services. Would this have been a piece...