RSS FeedJuly 1999, Eircom Floatation
Posted by Senan
Just over 10 years ago the then Irish government, hmmmmmm Fianna Fail, floated Eircom PLC. Like cultists we blindly signed up to purchase X worth of shares, without first knowing the price the shares would float at. The Irish back then were certainly financially naive. The immediate aftermath was great, the price went up and we all felt like super-investors. It didn't take long however for reality to sink in as the share price tanked. Suddenly the 500,000+ amateur investors found themselves burnt.
Fast forward to the present day. NAMA promises to rid our precious banks of their bad loans in a bid to increase liquidity and get the economy rumbling forward again. You would think that a cornerstone of this agency - in fact a predicate of its success - would be the establishment of the price at which the tax-payer is willing to pay for these non-performing loans. However it seems yet again that the powers that be have put the cart before the horse and rode headlong into a situation without having first established some of the important parameters and decisions.
I agree with the establishment of NAMA (although I don’t see why Anglo Irish Bank did not just assume the mantle). What frightens me is that when you examine many of the financial decisions made on behalf of this country by the government, they don’t often come up smelling of roses. Project after project after project run over-budget. Political posturing, seen for example in the case of the voting machines, or departmental decentralisation. Corruption as highlighted by the many tribunals. And so on. What we need is strong, nimble leadership. Leadership that can make tough decisions quickly and correctly. As I’ve said before, the coming months will be very telling. Right now though, NAMA looms large, and it’s presumably the biggest roll-of-the-dice with tax-payers money in the history of the state – they must get it right.
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