Ireland’s state-run bad bank expects to turn a profit of 2.3 billion euro once it clears all the toxic loans it took from crippled banks.
The National Assets Management Agency (Nama) said it made 1.8 billion euro last year – four times as much money as the previous year.
It also said it delivered 2,000 homes for social housing and another 3,000 homes were being built as part of the target for 20,000 over the next four years.
Chairman Frank Daly said there was no doubt that the agency was in line to make a substantial profit for the state after using 31 billion euro to buy toxic loans from the bailed out banks.
“Nama has come a long way since it was set up. The debate has changed dramatically from how much Nama will lose over its lifetime to how big its surplus will be,” he said.
“Nama’s successful delivery of its mandate is good news for the taxpayer. We plan on being just as successful in delivering major development projects in the Docklands and thousands of homes for people who need them.”
Other figures from the agency’s annual report for last year showed it had secured p lanning permission for another 5,100 houses and apartments and submitted applications to have another 5,000 built.
Nama was planning to make more planning applications this year for another 6,600 homes.
In the Docklands, classed as a Strategic Development Zone to fast-track large building projects, Nama said construction had started on sites that would hold 1.2m sq ft of commercial accommodation and 345 new homes.
It also had planning permission for another 1.3m sq ft of offices and commercial units and 226 apartments and a hotel.
Nama also sold assets for 8.5 billion euro last year.
Chief executive Brendan McDonagh said the numbers were an o utstanding performance.
“We continue to make excellent progress in achieving what the Oireachtas asked us to achieve – eliminating a 30.2 billion euro contingent liability for the taxpayer and maximising the financial return from our assets,” he said.
“We are also on course to deliver a significant surplus for the taxpayer over Nama’s lifetime, in addition to fulfilling our more recent mandates of delivering 20,000 new homes where they are most needed and world-class offices and commercial space in the Dublin Docklands.”
Much of the cash that Nama generated was used to pay off the debts run up by clearing the toxic loans from Irish banks and its outstanding senior d ebt has fallen to 5.6 billion euro – less than a fifth of what it peaked at.