Deutsche Bank AG is acting as a broker for some investors who are keen to sell their holdings in Credit Suisse Group AG’s supply-chain funds that bought products from Greensill Capital, Bloomberg News reported. The German bank has contacted hedge funds and investment firms to gauge interest for a deal. It’s unclear how many investors are looking to sell and at what price. Credit Suisse started liquidating $10 billion of funds earlier this month after insurance covering some of the debt packaged by Greensill lapsed.
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Updated guidance on monetary penalties by the United Kingdom’s sanctions enforcer this week provides more clarification on self-reporting and suggests the agency may adopt a more aggressive enforcement approach, compliance observers said, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, a U.K. Treasury unit in charge of applying and carrying out sanctions policy, on Wednesday released the guidance outlining its enforcement powers and how it will use them, effective April 1.
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Thorntons, the 110-year-old British chocolatier and retailer, said on Monday it would permanently close all 61 UK stores, putting 603 jobs at risk, blaming the impact of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, Reuters reported. Multiple lockdowns in Britain have heaped pressure on store-based retailers already struggling with tight margins and intense competition from purely online players. Thorntons, which was acquired by Italian group Ferrero in 2015 for 112 million pounds ($156 million) said the challenges it faced to trading were “too severe” and it would enter a consultation with impacted staff.
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U.S. private equity company Apollo Global Management has ended talks with the administrators of British financing company Greensill after a JPMorgan investment in Greensill’s technology partner, Reuters reported. Greensill, which filed for insolvency earlier this week after losing the support of its main backers, employed around 1,000 people in the UK. Apollo was negotiating a $60 million acquisition of Greensill’s operating assets via its insurance arm Athene, the company said in its insolvency filing in a UK court earlier this week.
Britain’s economy shrank by less than feared in January when the country went back into a coronavirus lockdown, but trade with the European Union was hammered as new post-Brexit rules kicked in, Reuters reported. Gross domestic product was 2.9% lower than in December, the Office for National Statistics said. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a contraction of 4.9% and government bond prices fell as investors took the data as a sign that the Bank of England was less likely to pump more stimulus into the economy.
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Credit Suisse faces questions from regulators and insurers as it grapples with the fallout from the collapse of $10 billion worth of funds linked to British financial services firm Greensill Capital, Reuters reported. The Swiss bank has hired external firms to help with their inquiries in the wake of Greensill Capital’s insolvency. Greensill’s insolvency has sent ramifications through the world of trade finance, threatening companies which relied on its platform to receive faster payment for the goods they had supplied to larger entities.
The administration costs of collapsed mini-bond provider London Capital & Finance (LCF) are expected to total £7.7m by next January, P2P Finance News reported. The latest progress report from joint administrators Smith & Williamson revealed that fees have already reached £5.6m. By 29 January 2022, the end of the third year of the administration, costs are expected to hit £7.7m, according to the document filed with Companies House.
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Greensill Capital’s talks to sell parts of its operating business to Athene Holding Ltd. were derailed after one of the firm’s key technology partners received funding that allows it to finance Greensill’s most creditworthy clients directly, Bloomberg News reported. Taulia, a financial technology company that had worked closely with Greensill, landed a $6 billion liquidity facility from banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. Taulia’s clients had an immediate need for liquidity because of Greensill’s insolvency.
U.K. metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta is negotiating a standstill agreement with Greensill Capital to give his companies breathing space over payments on billions of dollars worth of debt, the Wall Street Journal reported. Greensill is among Mr. Gupta’s biggest lenders, but filed for insolvency protection on Monday. Its troubles have prompted Mr. Gupta to fly abroad to seek new sources of financing, while governments and workers in several countries are seeking clarity on the fallout on his network of steel, aluminum and energy companies.
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Cryptocurrency investment platform Cred Inc. unwittingly put a convicted financial criminal identified by the U.K. as a fugitive in charge of raising and deploying the firm’s capital before its collapse into bankruptcy, a court-appointed examiner said, the Wall Street Journal reported. An examiner’s report filed Monday in the U.S.
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