US investor Cerberus is winding up the company that was at the centre of a controversial €1.6 billion deal done by the State’s National Asset Management Agency (Nama) in Northern Ireland.
Cerberus Capital Management used Dublin-registered Promontoria Eagle to buy property loans owed mainly by borrowers in the North from the agency for €1.6 billion in 2014, sparking a allegations that led to a criminal trial that continues in Belfast.
The group last week resolved to wind up Promontoria Eagle and appoint Paul Walsh and John Boland of accountants Grant Thornton as liquidators, papers filed with the Companies’ Registration Office show.
Buying the loans from Nama gave Cerberus the right to collect up to €6 billion due from borrowers, or to take ownership of the properties against which those debts were secured.
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Its decision to liquidate the company indicates that it has completed this process.
[ Project Eagle was far from Nama’s finest hourOpens in new window ]
As previously reported by The Irish Times, directors Donal O’Sullivan and David Greene stated in May that they expected to collect any outstanding debts within 12 months, at which point the company would no longer be active and would be wound up.
The company’s shareholder, Netherlands-based Cerberus subsidiary, Promontoria Holdings 83 BV, passed a resolution to voluntarily wind up Promontoria Eagle on December 16th, the filings show.
Cerberus was an active buyer of property loans from banks and Nama in the years following the financial crash in 2008.
The US firm generally channelled finance to Irish companies established to hold the loans, such as Promontoria Eagle, through subsidiaries in the Netherlands.
Cerberus used a combination of its own cash and loans from international banks to pay for its Irish activities.
It then loaned this money to its companies in the Republic, allowing it take advantage of tax breaks on interest repayments given to property holding companies. The Oireachtas subsequently changed the law to end those tax breaks.
Controversy erupted over Project Eagle in 2015, when it emerged that Ian Coulter, managing partner of Belfast solicitors’ firm Tughans, transferred €7 million in fees from the transaction to an Isle of Man bank account without his firm’s knowledge.
Mr Coulter transferred the cash back to the firm and resigned.
The row led to a criminal investigation in the North and a Committee of Public Accounts inquiry in the Republic.
Mr Coulter along with businessman and former Nama advisor, Frank Cushnahan, subsequently went on trial in Belfast for fraud and associated charges, allegation that both deny.
Mr Cushnahan’s trial is ongoing, but the court discontinued Mr Coulter’s hearing as his barrister fell ill. The North’s public prosecutor intends that Mr Coulter will face trial in due course.
Cerberus did not comment on Monday.
