The chairman of the National Asset Management Agency has said it is likely to take action against more big property developers, saying some of them are making 'little effort' to make progress and have not yet adapted to what he called 'the new realities'.
Frank Daly was speaking at the AGM of the Licensed Vintners' Association in Dublin today.
Mr Daly also rejected suggestions that NAMA was a dominant player in the hotel sector, describing talk of the agency's keeping 'zombie hotels' afloat as misinformed.
Mr Daly said NAMA had completed its review of the business plans of the 30 largest debtors, who account for around €27 billion of loans. He said agreement had been reached with 11, while six more were close to agreement. Receivers had been appointed to two, while talks were continuing with 11.
Mr Daly said it was likely that action would follow against some of those which were still in negotiations.
He said NAMA had asked for business plans from the rest of those who owed it money, and aimed to have these reviewed by the end of the year. But he said NAMA was having to put pressure on some to engage in this process.
NAMA has so far taken on the property loans of around 850 parties. Those of the largest 175 will be managed directly by NAMA.
On hotels, Mr Daly said NAMA was aware that were was excess capacity in the Irish market, but he said the agency had no intention of pouring taxpayers' money into hotels which were not viable. He said hotels owing money to NAMA accounted less than 10% of the total in Ireland.
Mr Daly added that at least two non-Irish institutions had a 'significantly greater' exposure to Irish hotels than NAMA.
