Results 21,981-22,000 of 34,729 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Okay. In other words, when Cerberus says it notifies us of the three technical breaches, and a breach is a breach whether it is technical or non-technical, the biggest breach was it never told NAMA about the appointment of these people in the first place. NAMA only heard that on 3 April. In fact, there was one major breach. They never told NAMA about them. Now they are giving three...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Brown Rudnick. In case the message went out today there were only three technical breaches, the biggest breach was not telling NAMA about them in the first place. I want to move on to the next paragraph. I am sorry about this. This will take a few minutes and it is in everybody's interest that we close off these points. Paragraph 4.12 reads:NAMA would tell PIMCO about the process being...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Does Mr. McDonagh see why I read it that way?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: The bottom of page 147 refers to a post-acquisition proposal by PIMCO that it "would likely forgive personal recourse in return for the borrowers handing over their property assets in a consensual manner". This refers to forgoing personal guarantees. Obviously, being informed of this in advance would have had an impact on the price that the Irish public could achieve in the deal. This was...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Yes, it could have been.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: There is no suggestion that NAMA was doing this. The suggestion is that PIMCO was doing it.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: The restrictions - a limited number of bidders and the one phase of bidding, that there had to be cash up front, confidentiality attached, people were not allowed to get local valuations, limited information was available to perform due diligence, the restriction on advisers and the time restrictions on the process - could only have reduced the possible price that NAMA could achieve. Had...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: They were not allowed to do their own valuations-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: -----on some of the properties.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: It could be done very quickly.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Two bidders were in the field at the end. We wrote to Fortress and asked for its rationale for making a bid below the reserve price. It stated that the bid process required an unconditional bid that "could not be syndicated or financed pre-bid". I will cut to the chase. Only one bidder met the conditions of minimum price, cash up front and the breakdown. We must decide a question....

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: May I ask a simple question? I will not go into any of the minutes. Why did PIMCO exit the process?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: We have torn the minutes apart, but I am asking for the basic reason.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: I want to tease this out because I am a little confused even after everything I have heard. Was that success fee arrangement to be split between the three? People refer to a "proposed" success fee. Based on the "proposed" success fee, he was to receive something. Was that agreement in place? Is that Mr. McDonagh's understanding?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: I am very clear.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Correct.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: That is why I asked why PIMCO had withdrawn. What the witnesses seem to be confirming is that PIMCO is saying it was approached twice about a fee and never consented to it. If it did not agree to do anything wrong, why did it withdraw? The witnesses can understand that question.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: It said it withdrew. We will have to go back on that. I want to be clear because there was an understanding that there was a success fee arrangement in place. When this was being teased out, was it known as an issue? Mr. Daly is saying he accepts there was never one in place. There was one requested.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: Fine.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (24 Nov 2016)

Seán Fleming: We just want to be clear in our report that there was never a fee arrangement in place.