Results 20,721-20,740 of 26,718 for speaker:David Cullinane

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: I have that point. I have limited time and I have a number of other questions. Mr. Long was asked earlier by Teachta Catherine Murphy about the rationale for limitations in terms of the loan sale strategy, and he said that was a good question, the fact that PIMCO made an approach made that a very relevant factor in regard to the board's position on that, that the board wanted to have a...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: The last line of paragraph 4.14 in the reports states, "The Board agreed that a lower fee should be paid to Lazard if PIMCO emerged as the preferred bidder". That suggests there was potentially a bias towards PIMCO. That it would have been cheaper for it. The whole language seems to suggest that there was a bias towards PIMCO.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: I want to move on to Mr. Long's work.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: Paragraph 4.17 on page 68 of the report, which sets out the criteria that Mr. Long would have set out, states: "Strict confidentiality was to be maintained and potential bidders were to be prohibited from contacting the debtors". Mr. Long will have seen from letters from PIMCO and from correspondence to this committee, and this is also contained in the Comptroller and Auditor General's...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: Paragraph 4.17 of the report goes on to state: "The process needed to be run in a fair and transparent manner". Focusing on the word "transparent", in all of the deals or sales processes in which Mr. Long would have been involved, would it have been unusual for those sales processes to be subjected to two criminal investigations in two different jurisdictions?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: It certainly would not suggest that they were the most transparent processes if they were subject to criminal investigations.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: Mr. Long was a loan sale adviser.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: We heard earlier that Mr. Long was not given the information on the conflicts of interest-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: -----so we can see from the Comptroller and Auditor General's report that on 10, 11 and 12 March that there was a lot of discussion at board level about the conflicts of interest. The board would have been made aware of the fact that there was a difficulty here where one of the Northern Ireland Advisory Committee, NIAC, members had an association with Brown Rudnick and Tughans which were...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: Lazard's job was to make sure there was a transparent process. Did Mr. Long ever question why Lazard was not informed of what was happening?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: Why was Lazard not informed? What we are trying to establish is whether the process that was carried out was in any way flawed and whether mistakes were made? Mr. Long was the loan sale adviser and this seems an obvious mistake in that the board was discussing clear conflicts of interests and its members were very exercised about it and said it was shocking. When the board members appeared...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: I will come back in on the second round of questions.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: I do not accept that, but I will come back to it on the second round of questions.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: I am not asking him why he was not informed. He is a loan sale adviser and would it have been better if he was informed? That is the question.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: I will just add some factual information, because Mr. Long might not have heard this part of Cerberus's evidence. When Cerberus was before the committee it said that there were technical breaches of the non-disclosure agreement. I am not sure if Mr. Long is aware of that. Did Cerberus disclose that to Lazard at any point, because that is important as well? I am on the same line.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: Mr. Long has been helpful. I thank him for his patience in sticking with us. I wish to address three issues. Mr. Long mentioned the uniqueness of this sale's characteristics a number of times. We are under time pressure, so I will be as concise as I can. Will Mr. Long help me to understand the uniqueness of the arrangement? Section 4.3 of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: Would that be unusual?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: So that would be unusual.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: There was no tender competition for Lazard's appointment.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (22 Nov 2016)

David Cullinane: Mr. Long stated that he had been involved in 50 loan sales. Would this have been unusual in those when dealing with a State body?