AFTER looking last week at Bank of Ireland's future property rental commitments (nearly €700 million in total), Around The Block decided to examine the property assets of the biggest banking basket case of them all: Irish Nationwide.
There we found that the freehold and leasehold interests in the society, which had stood at €45.8 million, was written down by €4.5 million last year.
They had been valued at €112.5 million at the beginning of 2009.
Meanwhile the society’s branch network, which is being put up for sale, is valued at €36.1 million in its accounts.
Irish Nationwides investments properties fell from €6.9 million at the start of 2009 to €4.4 million at the end of last year.
The society also took a €300,000 impairment charge to write down development property, after taking a €6.8 million hit the previous year. It lost a further €3.9 million from the sale of development property. Any chance of giving back that bonus, Mr Fingleton?
