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Book sell-off completes at NDF Administration
Rob Langston, 23 May 2011
The administrator of a structured product provider hit by the collapse of Lehman Brothers has completed the sale of its ISA mortgage book, to a former director.
Andrew Hosking, administrator at Grant Thornton, acknowledged the mortgage book of NDF Administration has been sold, in consultation with the Financial Services Authority, at the end of March 2011 to Synergy Financial Products.
According to the Financial Services Authority register, Synergy Financial Products director John Waller was formerly a director at NDF Administration.
The sale of the mortgage book was undertaken by the accountancy firm’s corporate finance department, which resulted in interest from a number of interested parties.
In September last year, the administrator requested a further six months from creditors to sell the mortgage book. The mortgage book was sold for £200,000, according to the administrator’s report.
However, the administrator incurred greater costs as a result of taking advice over the sale of the mortgage book. The sale has also seen the sole remaining member of staff at NDF Administration leave the company.
Hosking said the administration was likely to end within the next six months, with a creditors’ voluntary liquidation in accordance with creditors’ agreement with proposals published in December 2009.
The administrator said NDF Administration currently manages four Royal Bank of Scotland Group plans, but is in talks with the bank to ensure management of plans to maturity.
Synergy had previously acquired NDF Administration’s pure insurance products book in January 2010; its structured product book was sold to Meteor Asset Management in February 2010.
NDF Administration and sister company Defined Returns went into administration in October 2009 after the Financial Services Authority asked firms to assess their financial position in relation to the sale of Lehman Brothers-backed structured products.
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Comments
Comment by NDFA Lehman structured product investor
If you check Companies House filings, you will see that the connection between these companies is a ittle stronger than that. Mr Waller's financial interest was 2% or less, but yes he has been a director of NDF, DRL, and Synergy. The real connection between these companies (and with OPAL (Outsourced Professional Administration Limited)) is that they are commonly owned and controlled by the same small set of shareholders. These guys have got back some of their NDF business after it went bust with mis-selling liabilities. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the meanwhile has paid out £20m to holders of NDF/DRL structured products backed by Lehman which it determined were mis-sold. There is a further £40m of un-compensated losses.
Comment by Missold investments
There is a dedicated, non-commercial website run by those who have lost their savings with Lehman-backed structured products from DRL, NDFA, ARC or Meteor to help campaign for compensation. missoldinvestments.co.uk