THE LONDON property on which the National Asset Management Agency is to make some of its first profits is understood to be a car park in upmarket Mayfair linked to businessman Derek Quinlan.
A sale of the property, which is managed by the investment firm previously run by Mr Quinlan, has been agreed but not completed.
Nama bought a loan secured on the Audley Square Car Park in Mayfair from Anglo Irish Bank at a heavy discount in the first wave of tranches earlier this year.
Loans to Mr Quinlan and his firm were transferred to Nama with loans of the top 10 borrowers.
Nama has agreed to sell the car park in a deal that is expected to net a profit of about €140 million.
Anglo provided a loan of £130 million (€148 million) on the property earmarked for redevelopment. Nama is believed to have bought the loan for €40 million.
It will be one of the first asset sales by the agency. Nama said last month it was planning to sell an initial €500 million worth of assets over the coming months.
The London property was put on the market at a price of more than £180 million last May.
The property is being managed by the Dublin investment company Avestus Capital, the firm founded by Mr Quinlan that was named Quinlan Private prior to his departure as its chairman in 2009.
While Nama will make a profit on the transaction, the transfer of the loan to the agency at a large discount from Anglo led to the bank incurring a substantial loss, contributing to the €29.3 billion cost of the bank to the taxpayer.
The property was destined for the market prior to the transfer of the Quinlan loans to Nama.
The bank, Nama and Avestus had no comment to make.
The State agency applied average haircuts of 55 per cent and 62 per cent respectively to loans of €9 billion and €6 billion acquired from Anglo in the first two waves of transfers this year.
The increase in the average haircut on the remaining €20 billion in loans to be acquired from Anglo to 67 per cent led the Government to increase its base case estimate for the cost of the bank from €22.9 billion to €29.3 billion.
