Nama's draft business plan projects a profit of €5.5 billion by 2020 even after overpaying €7 billion for loans and incurring expenses of €2.6 billion. Surely, this forecast undermines the need for Nama. In truth, the plan's projections are undoubtedly "very best case" and other scenarios should have been published using lower repayments and interest income, higher defaults etc. These scenarios would explain why the banks are so enthusiastic about passing all their property loans to Nama.
Letter published in the Sunday Business Post on 1st November 2009.
What is the point of the Dail debating the Nama Bill before Nama has undertaken basic research on its prospective loan portfolio and finalised its business plan and strategies? If Nama's draft plan was used to seek €54,000 from investors, it would be rejected out of hand as an extremely poor document. Given that Nama needs to effectively raise an amount which is a million times larger i.e €54,000,000,000, surely no taxpayers' money should be provided until its plan has been fully researched and approved by the Dail. Only at that point would it be appropriate to resume consideration of the Nama Bill. Thoughts of horses, carts and stable doors come to mind.
Letter published in the Sunday Business Post on 8th November 2009.
