If its true that the Government has told the banks to get their books in order then frankly, its about bloody time. Yet again it shows the complete incompetence of the Regulator & the Central Bank, it was there job after all to make sure that the books never got into a state they are in.
On the other hand, I’m surprised that if the Government has made this demand, that they didn’t come out & tell the press they had. At least that way the market would have reacted positively & the Government could have got some Kudos. Hence, I’m extremely sceptical that this demand has actually been made. I’m guessing this is just more “smoke & mirrors” from the morons destroying our economy.
I see the not so invisible hand of the EU here. My guess is that the Irish guarantee has been allowed as long as it leads to a clean up of the act on the part of the Irish banks.
Another developer, not necessarily in trouble, but having a really hard time figuring out what the “appropriate” value for their assets is. Wonder what happens to LTV covenants in this case.
Pricewaterhousecooper are the only large firm that did not have an audit contract with an Irish Bank. This is why they were chosen to do this special audit .
Some of the variances in valuations that they have discovered are soooo great that it is impossible to understand how the in situ auditors allowed them at all.
It is quite likely that a shitstorm of legal actions will eventually ensue , especially from shareholders who have taken a bath on this already .
On a related note the Galway Repo Man business is heaving , one took on 10 ‘lads’ this and last week and ‘guaranteed’ them work till christmas. Lock up your Bentley and your Aston Martin at night from now on
I suspect you may be on to something, but I’d guess the EU would just be interested in something that obstructs cross border competition. Alternatively, what we could be seeing is the heavies in the Department of Finance getting a grip on what the real exposure is.
Either way, it does raise questions about what the Regulator and the Central Bank have been doing for the last few years. I mean, there’s stuff in the Business Post about several banks having sizeable exposures to McNamara. How were those eggs allowed to be carried in the same basket?
Game over yes, but the ending is only beginning. Tis gonna be bad, but a bit like the tribunals, the insolvency proceedings will just be boring.
Thing is though, while everyone is focused on the developers, a shit-load of other people are up to their titty winks in debt. Will be a broad as well as deep slump.
What that sounded like to me at first was that the market has stopped so dead for them that they’re having a hard time shifting them at any price. But then I thought about it and I realised I was being silly - of course they could sell them if they really REALLY wanted to sell them - so I think you’re right - I think its just a case of “it’s really more than the morkesh says”. But it sounds like the reality may not be too far aware for them.
I know in theory Pop shops do very well out of times when money is tight, but isn’t their business model based on being able to sell stuff on at a profit ?
In the 30’s I’m pretty sure the majority of stuff the pop shops were taking in was jewellery. This is perfect for the owners, because even if no-one wants to buy a bracelet, they can always reduce it to its precious metals & sell it on as scrap. I seem to remember hearing that the scrap value was always the one in the head of the pawn broker when they offered you a price. Hence they didn’t give a monkey’s if you were offering them a Faberge egg, they saw 3 Oz Gold & some Gems.
The point I’m slowly getting to is that your average Pawn broker probably doesn’t see much quality goods these days. They probably get offered wall fulls of Plasma TVs & consumer goods, but what are these worth, should they have to sell them ?
I think most people will find if they call into their local pop shop, that they have little of interest to the owner !
This must be one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever read. I mean, would it not at least be a decent starting point to provide a valuation of, say, cost? Wouldn’t that be better than just shrugging shoulders and saying, “sorry mate, no clue at all”.
Or maybe cost is too much? Or maybe they still expect profit but can’t quantify the size of it? Whatever, it all seems most most odd.
