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THE NATIONAL TREASURY Management Agency says it has met its first “first debt repayment milestone” in repaying a quarter of its senior debt by the end of last year.
The NTMA said it generated €20.5bn in debtor receipts up to the end of June 2014 and repaid €7.5bn (or 25%) of its senior debt by the end of December 2013 – and a further €5.5bn (or 43% in total) so far this year.
The agency said it raised €7 billion in bond market activity so far this year and is focusing on the next major Irish bond maturity in two years, according to the agency’s latest performance update.
The NTMA raised €3.75bn in a January 2014 bond syndication, ahead of the restart of its bond auction programme in March 2014.
According to the NTMA’s figures, the Pension Fund’s total value stood at €20.1bn at the end of June 2014, with its discretionary portfolio valued at €7bn and the directed portfolio at €13.1bn.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said:
You can almost mark the progress of the country by the progress of the NTMA. We have moved from a situation where three years ago it was not possible to borrow on the international market.
“The NTMA now have very little difficulty raising money on the market to the point where it doesn’t excite a news story anymore.”
The agency said that the National Pensions Reserve Fund has committed €1.25bn to investments, including a $50m commitment to the joint venture the China Ireland Technology Growth Capital Fund announced earlier this year.
The NPRF allocation will come under the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund for use on developing infrastructure, providing long-term SME funding and venture capital.
NTMA Chief Executive John Corrigan said that, given Ireland’s post-EU/IMF programme return to full market access, the NTMA is focusing on the “next significant maturity” – a 2016 bond.
Corrigan said Ireland has “moved from the opportunistic and syndicated [bond] issuance which characterised our initial return to the markets, to a series of scheduled bond auctions, marking the final step in achieving normal bond market access.”
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The landlord is greedy and chancing his arm.
The landlord is broke and chancing his arm!
I think the upwards only clause is the real problem here. Theres no justification for it and is effectively baring market forces from working.
This is a landmark case.
Upward only rent reviews over 35 years…. The fact that there are people out there that would agree to this in the first place makes them total idiots… Reminds me of goodfellas… Oh your business got hit by lighting yeah…. F**k you pay me..!
There is no upwards only clause in this case hence the High Court decision.
The landlord is the country (me, you, everybody), we own the company that controls the lease.
The Irish commercial property market is an organised cartel.
This cartel imposed the most draconian commercial property lease law i.e upward-only rent reviews tied to very long leases, on all Irish commercial tenants. No other commercial tenants in the world had to endure this feudal lease law. This feudal lease law inflated commercial property rents and prices. The commercial property bubble is a direct consequence of this lease law.
In March 2011 the government, in it’s program for government pledged “We will pass legislation to ban upward only rent reviews in existing commercial leases”. The cartel responded immediately. ” Ireland First” a group of seventeen business experts including a former Fine Gael Taoiseach and two tax exiles, and “Property Industry Ireland” a group representing the property industry including a former Fine Gael Taoiseach’s son,were some of the cartel’s lobbyists. On 6th December 2011 MInister Noonan announced to the Dail that the government were not proceeding with this reform. The people have voted to abolish upward-only rent reviews-that is their democratic choice based on a single transferable voting system we have in place-but the government is ignoring the democratic will of the people and saying the cartel’s rights trump democracy. They are allowing the cartel to veto the orderly adjustment of the commercial property rental market. In Ireland the vested interests always win out over the public interest. This cowardly and disastrous u-turn has destroyed tens of thousands of sustainable Irish jobs and businesses. It has created a dysfunctional two-tier commercial property rental market which will undermine the recovery of the economy and the commercial property investment market.
Kerins and Flannery were involved in that lobby group as well apparently.
Here’s the full list: Angela Kerins, (co-chair) ; Philip Lynch (co-chair); Michael Berkery; John Bruton
Leslie Buckley; Pat Cox; Dermot Desmond; Frank Flannery; Ray MacSharry; Denis O’Brien; Sean O’Driscoll; Michael O’Flynn; Mike Soden; Michael Somers; Dick Spring; Peter Sutherland and Brendan Tuohy.
What a list of patriots.
But upward only contracts keep our betters in the life they are accustomed and entitled to. Great bunch of lads.
Aaaand the usual comments.
This case isn’t about whether upward only rent reviews are legal in new leases. They aren’t. It isn’t about whether upward only rent reviews are legal in old leases. They are. The only issue is whether the clause in this particular lease was an upward only clause in the first place. The High Court says it wasn’t.
I thought new leases didn’t have these type of upward only clauses at all.
Wish Ronan would fu** off back to Morocco on his private jet and never come back
The government’s u-turn on it’s program for government pledge to ban upward-only rent reviews in existing commercial property leases;
It was agreed budget day would be the least bad day to make the announcement. Minister Noonan mentioned landlords compensation to get Minister Shatter off the hook. Gerard Hogan SC had dealt with this point in his legal opinion,landlords were entitled to market rents,but not to compensation. In May 2011 Minister Shatter had stated to the Irish and international media there was an emergency job crisis and under article 43.2.2 of the constitution,in the “exigencies of the common good”, banning UORRs in existing commercial leases was vital. Furthermore Minister Shatter stated it wouldn’t effect Nama’s valuations. He had a copy of the esteemed senior counsel Gerard Hogan’s opinion and Colm McCarthy’s report to support this position.
Democracy was overturned,the cartel had triumphed.
Greedy and a joke that he should per sue this…upward only rent days are gone
Haven’t noticed bewleys dropping their prices since 2007 … Double standard
Maybe they would if their rent came down.
Maybe they should lead by example.
Good business acumen there, “let’s reduce service prices that will make our landlord happy and he will then reduce our rent”
Let’s continue to charge massive money to stupid idiots and then cry poverty to our landlord.
As my solicitors informed me, give a lease with no mention of any clause or rent review. When it’s over simply start a completely new contract and charge what you like. It’s that simple. Same principle applies to labour, zero hour or short term contracts protect your interests best. Any issue just kick them out or don’t renew.
Easy to see what kind of properties you rent.
The tennent signed the lease with the upwards only rent review clause.
No. The person commenting on the Journal article didn’t read it properly.
And then the economy collapsed.
It’s the journals fault.
This is disgraceful creeping communism that a judge can decide the price that a private citizen is allowed charge for a good. Disgraceful absolutely disgraceful
He’s not deciding the price he’s deciding whether it’s legal and part of the contract to charge them a few hundred percent above market value, maybe read the article?
On page 92 of his ground breaking book ” Breakfast with Anglo” the distinguished Irish developer,columnist and author Simon Kelly states “The building was occupied by a tenant,but they were breaking their lease early and paying six years rent to get out. That seemed CRAZY to me, but it was an institutional tenant, and there’s no accounting for their logic.”
Indeed Simon Kelly is spot on –it is Crazy. Ireland has the most anti-tenant commercial property lease law in the world i.e. ratchet upward-only rent reviews tied to very long leases, some like Carrisbrook House Ballsbridge for sixty five years,but mainly for thirty five years. In all other countries lease lengths for commercial property and residential properties are similar, at say five years.l
The payment of rent is governed by the provisions of the lease. US leases are of varying lengths but rarely for longer than ten years and often for 3-year periods; Australian leases of grade A and premium office appear similar to the US. Leases in the Far East are often shorter still. The tendency in the UK is towards 5,10 or 15 year leases, but it is now not uncommon for industrial and office leases to include breaks,normally timed at 5-year review date. In continential Europe 3-10 year leases are very common.
The regularity with which rents may be increased also differs throughout the world. While in the US,Hong Kong and Singapore the 3-year lease is usually at a fixed rent and the Australian office and retail leases include annual fixed or consumer-price-index reviews, the continental European leases often have rents indexed annually. Longer North American leases may have rents tied to the rate of inflation or,more often, to tenants turnover; this is rare in the UK. Change to the UK commercial leasing regime has been one of the most important property market issues since the UK PROPERTY CRASH OF 1990
No other government in the world would sign these ruinous leases, and waste billions of it’s citizens money.
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