Anglo Irish Bank: transferring €10bn in loans in the first tranche

Anglo Irish Bank is facing a further €500m "haircut" on the first tranche of loans it is transferring to Nama, bringing the overall discount to 55%.


The bank had expected a haircut of 28% originally, meaning the final discount is now likely to be twice its initial estimate. Anglo will transfer €10bn of loans in the first tranche.


The loan transfers have been delayed in part because of the non-real estate collateral, including wine collections, art collections and equity portfolios, which had been pledged as part of the collateral for the loans. On a wider scale, Nama has discovered that many of the developer's status symbols, like top of the range cars, were leased rather than owned by them.


The delays with the Anglo loans are also in part due to the complexity of the facilities used by the bank, each of which contain several loans.


Sources said frustrations were now emerging between the two sides as Anglo's new executive team focuses on moving forward with a good bank while Nama tries to deal with the bad loan issues.


About 25% of the overall valuations by the banks for properties in tranche one were rejected by Nama. Some appeals have now been made by the banks on valuations given by the loan agency, some of which relate to the 0% valuation being given for loans with security issues. These appeals will be considered after the final transfer of loans has taken place which could be early next year. Bank of Ireland is the only institution without issues in Tranche 1, while AIB is still working to fix the security surrounding nearly €550m of loans to Liam Carroll. Sources said that Irish Nationwide is also trying to resolve some security issues.


The top 10 developers whose loans are being transferred to Nama have until the end of the week to submit business plans setting out how they plan to trade through their difficulties. The few who have already done so have had them sent back, sources said, because the plans were based on unrealistic projections or long-term interest roll ups.


Those developers will now have one last opportunity to submit a realistic business plan as sources said the agency plan to operate a 'two strikes and you're out' policy with developers.


Where a second business plan is rejected, the agency will take legal action against them, possibly as soon as September.


The sources said that developers had not taken the banks seriously for the last two years at least as they had just been allowed roll up interest, instead of the banks making decisions on the viability of projects and debtors.


Instead, some developers had grown so large that the power had shifted to them.


Sources said Nama will also chase developers, where necessary, to access any assets unlawfully transferred to third parties or trusts where it is clear this was done to avoid them being claimed by Nama in settlement of personal guarantees and other obligations.


Developers have been told to submit a list of assets transferred "out of the group entities that were undertaken during the past three years to the benefit of the ultimate beneficial owner(s) or their related parties".


Nama will prepare a new business plan in the near future. It is understood that current calculations suggest that the discounts have been so severe that the project will break even if it achieves a positive cashflow rate of 20%.