DUBLIN: Ireland’s state-run “bad bank” has redeemed a further 952 million euros of senior bonds, it said on Wednesday, cutting its outstanding senior debt to just 500 million euros or 2 percent of the total it originally issued during the financial crisis. “With the government-guaranteed NAMA senior debt now reduced to 500 million euros, NAMA is close to achieving, three years ahead of schedule, its primary commercial objective of redeeming its senior debt and thereby eliminating this contingent liability for Irish taxpayers,” NAMA Chief Executive Brendan McDonagh said in a statement.
The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), which used 31.8 billion euros worth of mostly senior debt to rid local banks of 74 billion euros worth of risky property loans from 2010, has said it expects to return a lifetime profit of 2.3 billion euros to the government from its loan and property sales.