Your article ‘Irish property scandal sends shockwaves through industry’, refers to “property sources” as saying that the sale of the National Asset Management Agency’s (NAMA) Northern Ireland debtor loan book, Project Eagle, was “quicker and more opaque than usual”.

This is untrue. The NAMA sale process for Project Eagle was considered, transparent, robust, competitive and secured the best outcome for Irish taxpayers.

NAMA appointed Lazard, an international investment bank, in January 2014 to advise on and oversee the Project Eagle loan sale. Based on its assessment of the market, Lazard invited nine major global investment groups to participate in the process.

Cerberus Capital Management emerged as the highest bidder for the portfolio after a competitive bid process.

In so far as there may have been any suggestion of some alleged wrongdoing on the part of certain individuals at the periphery of the transaction in Northern Ireland, individuals who may have acted as advisers to potential purchasers, the facts as they pertain to these individuals and their activities are a matter for the appropriate authorities in Northern Ireland to establish. These alleged actions have nothing to do with NAMA and should not be conflated with NAMA’s open-market loan sale process.

In deciding to sell the loan portfolio, the NAMA board’s sole consideration was to achieve the best possible return for Irish taxpayers and the NAMA board is satisfied that the loan sale delivered on this objective.

Jenny Molumby, relationship manager, NAMA

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