THE NATIONAL Asset Management Agency has taken a High Court action against property developer Bernard McNamara to protect the State agency’s position over a debt of about €30 million.
National Asset Loan Management, the subsidiary of Nama which manages developers’ loans, issued the proceedings on Wednesday, court records show.
The agency is being represented by Dublin law firm Arthur Cox.
A spokesman for Nama had no comment. Mr McNamara could not be reached for comment.
It could not be established last night what asset the case relates to, though it’s understood Nama issued the proceedings against Mr McNamara personally to protect it against other creditors of the developer over the €30 million debt.
Mr McNamara admitted in an RTÉ radio interview in January 2010 that he was “broke” and had debts of about €1.5 billion.
Nama took the legal action as a number of Mr McNamara’s former hotels were put up for sale by receivers acting for another of his major lenders, Lloyds, which is running down the former Bank of Scotland (Ireland) loan book.
Receiver Paul McCann of accountancy firm Grant Thornton put the Parknasilla Hotel on the Ring of Kerry up for sale this week with a price tag of €10 million, down from the almost €40 million price that Mr McNamara paid for the hotel in 2006.
Last week, another of Mr McNamara’s hotels, the Burlington in Dublin, was put up for sale at a price of between €65 million and €75 million – one-quarter of the €288 million price he paid for it in 2007.
Lloyds appointed the receiver to those hotels and to the Cork International Airport Hotel and the former Ormond Hotel in Dublin in February 2012 over debts of more than €200 million to the bank.
Nama received proceeds from the sale of two Dublin apartments by Mr McNamara’s wife in July.
One of the 10 most indebted developers on Nama’s books, Mr McNamara was one of the most prolific buyers of property during the boom, snapping up properties with the aim of making big profits on their development potential.
