Ireland's bad bank NAMA has appointed Cushman & Wakefield’s corporate finance team to sell the massive €8.4 bn Project Arrow non-performing loan portfolio, well-informed market sources confirmed to PropertyEU.

Ireland's bad bank NAMA has appointed Cushman & Wakefield’s corporate finance team to sell the massive €8.4 bn Project Arrow non-performing loan portfolio, well-informed market sources confirmed to PropertyEU.

The mandate, which was first reported by the Irish Times on Sunday, is believed to represent the second-largest European NPL disposal after the sale of WestImmo's €10.4 bn in loans.

The portfolio comprises loans related to around 500 borrowers, secured against both commercial and residential property, all with a face value of less than €75 mln. The loans are currently managed by Allied Irish Bank and Capita Asset Services on behalf of NAMA.

Project Arrow is secured by 90% Irish real estate and 10% UK real estate. The portfolio is expected to be broken up into smaller portfolios and marketed separately.

Cushman & Wakefield declined to comment on the sale.

Irish bad banks IBRC and NAMA were by far the biggest real estate loan vendors by volume in 2014, with €18.7 bn and €10.1 bn of sales respectively, representing over a third of European activity.

NAMA is also believed to have put €300 mln of Irish performing loans on the market. The loans are secured against commercial and retail units in Cork including the Mahon Retail Park in Mallow, a retail precinct at Opera Lane in Cork and properties at Half Moon Street.

Over a dozen megadeals helped push Europe’s commercial real estate loan sales to a historic record of over €80.6 bn in 2014, according to figures from C&W. Another €22 bn of debt transactions are in the works.

The 2014 figure - about 2.5 times the amount reported for 2013 (€30 bn) - was driven by a strong rise in large-ticket transactions, with the market seeing 16 deals over €1 bn in the past 12 months.