Hotelier refinances to exit Nama

The McGettigan family, which owns a number of hotels and pubs in Ireland and overseas, is set to refinance some €25 million in loans that will see them exit the State assets agency Nama, according to weekend media reports.

The Sunday Business Post, citing a source familiar with the matter, said the family was close to asset disposal and bank refinancing.

The family’s debt is connected with the Regency hotel business founded by Jim McGettigan and now run by his six children.

Non-core assets

The family has been selling non-core assets, including the former Gillette headquarters in Hounslow in Britain, which was sold for £26 million two years ago.

Meanwhile, it is scheduled to open McGettigan’s pub on West 36th Street in Manhattan later this week. This will be followed by the opening of a large new bar and restaurant in Galway at the site of the former Bentley’s nightclub in Eyre Square.

Mr McGettigan opened his first pub on Dublin’s Queen Street in 1964.

The newspaper separately estimates that the portfolio of assets under Nama’s Project Jewel could attract offers as high as €1.6 billion.

The eventual sale price for the portfolio, which includes loans secured on the Dundrum Town Centre as well as holdings related to other shopping centres, is expected to reflect rising sentiment in the commercial project market.

The 10-year-old Dundrum development is widely regarded as Nama’s prize asset.

A spokesman for Nama declined to comment.

Nama aftertax profit

Nama made an after-tax profit of €458 million in 2014, more than double the €214 million surplus of the previous year, it said last week as it published its annual report. This was the fourth consecutive year of profitability by the State agency.

Nama chairman Frank Daly has reiterated previous guidance that Nama could achieve a "potential surplus" of €1 billion for the State by the time of its wind-down.