BUYERS SHOULD GET A RETURN ON NAMA DEALS, SAYS DALY - NAMA chairman Frank Daly has said that he "does not understand the view" that those to whom NAMA sells properties should not make a profit on future sales.
Speaking at the International Corporate Restructuring Summit in Dublin last week, Mr Daly said that it is the view "of a small [number] of people" that NAMA should "hold onto everything forever because you can never be sure that you will never get the actual maximum value [of the property]". Some commentators have suggested that the 'bad bank' is selling its assets too cheaply, due to eagerness from officials that the organisation be wound up as soon as possible, says the Irish Independent. One such building is One Warrington Place, a six-storey office building that houses Bord Gais's headquarters, which was first sold by NAMA to the US fund Northwood Investors in 2012 for €27m, who then sold on the property again for €42m last year. More recently, it has been reported that Cerberus, the US firm that bought NAMA's Northern Ireland loans portfolio, could make a profit of several hundred million euros on the transaction. It is estimated that the portfolio, which was sold for €1.6 billion, had a face value of €5.6 billion. However, Mr Daly said that buyers would expect a return on their investments when acquiring NAMA properties.
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GRAFTON STREET BEWLEY'S TO REOPEN EARLY NEXT YEAR - Bewley’s cafe on Grafton Street in Dublin is to reopen in either next February or March, some six months later than the Irish coffee group originally intended. Bewley’s chief executive John Cahill told The Irish Times that the “slight delay” reflected both the “sensitive nature” of the refurbishment work on the historic building and a decision to broaden the scope of the renovation. Bewley’s closed the cafe in February for a refurbishment that was intended to simplify its offering and focus it on the ground floor of the seven-floor building. This move was designed to reduce the company’s trading losses on Grafton Street to about €750,000, having lost a lengthy legal battle with the landlord, Johnny Ronan’s Ickendel Ltd, over the terms of its lease. The Supreme Court eventually decided in Ickendel’s favour, with the result that the annual rent is now set at just under €1.5 million a year. Bewley’s believes this to be twice the rent that the cafe, which had about one million customers a year, can sustain, and decided to close for six months to allow for renovations and to allow it to scale back the offering. However, it has since decided to renovate the first floor of the cafe to be “trading ready” and would consider opening this space if demand driven by the recovery in the Irish economy and strong tourist numbers continues.
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PIMCO ACCUSED OF MISUSING STAFF PENSIONS - Pimco’s most famous former executive, Bill Gross, made the bigger splash with his score-settling lawsuit last week, but he is not the only former employee presenting the asset management firm with a legal headache. The lawsuit filed by a former software developer for Pimco, along with an ex-Allianz employee, accuses Pimco and its sister company Allianz Global Investors of misusing their employees’ retirement savings, writes the Financial Times. The suit is seeking class action status. The joint company pension scheme has been stuffed with overpriced Pimco and Allianz mutual funds, and employee contributions are being used to prop up risky new funds, according to the claim that was filed last week in a federal court in California. If successful, the suit could benefit up to 4,000 employees across the two asset managers, most of them at the other end of the pay scale from those named in Mr Gross’s colourful wrongful dismissal claim. The complaint alleges that he was ousted as Pimco’s chief investment officer last year so that the other 60 managing directors could take a bigger share of a $1.3 billion annual bonus pot, of which he took $300m in 2013.
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SPORTS DIRECT BOSS CHARGED OVER WAREHOUSE STAFF REDUNDANCIES - Dave Forsey, the chief executive of Sports Direct, has been charged with a criminal offence in relation to the controversial collapse of fashion chain USC. The boss of the UK’s biggest sports chain, owned by the flamboyant billionaire Mike Ashley, will face magistrates next week in what is thought to be the first time a FTSE 100 chief has been charged under the Trade Union Act. He is accused of failing to notify authorities of plans to lay off staff. He remains under investigation by the Insolvency Service over his behaviour in the administration of USC, which was bought back by Sports Direct debt-free in a controversial pre-pack administration, and could be banned from holding directorships for up to 15 years. The criminal proceedings are the latest twist in a long-running saga exposed by the London Independent where staff at USC’s Dundonald warehouse were made to pack and ship stock before being given just 15 minutes’ notice that they would lose their jobs. Staff described incredible scenes as the warehouse’s owner, Tom Hunter, sent his own workers to block the exits because of unpaid rent bills in an all-day stand-off.
