Prospects dim for sale of UK's Greensill

The prospect of the once-mighty United Kingdom-based finance company Greensill Capital being saved looks to have passed, according to the Financial Times newspaper, which said on Wednesday that United States private equity company Apollo Global Management had shelved plans to intervene.

Apollo Global Management had reportedly been close to buying large parts of Greensill, which entered administration on Monday.

Greensill had attracted high-profile technology investors in the past, including SoftBank, and was seen as one of the world's most valuable fintech companies before its failure.

The Financial Times reported sources close to the companies said talks about the potential purchase stopped because US technology company Taulia, a key technology provider to Greensill, had been telling Greensill's customers using a digital platform provided by Taulia that they should shift to other providers, including the US bank JP Morgan.

Taulia said in a statement that its clients wanted "flexibility in the source of funding".

"Following the recent, well-documented challenges faced by Greensill, we have been working to ensure that our clients have continued choice over their funding sources and continuation of funding," the company said.

Earlier, Greensill said in court documents related to its filing for administration that Apollo had offered $59.5 million for intellectual property and IT systems in a move that would have saved the jobs of most of its 600 employees.

Bloomberg also reported on Wednesday that Apollo's talks with Greensill were failing.

Greensill filed for insolvency after high-profile difficulties recently, including Credit Suisse suspending four of its Greensill-backed supply chain finance funds last week that had been worth $10 billion. Credit Suisse is understood to also be reviewing the circumstances surrounding its $140 million bridging loan offered to Greensill in November.

The Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday some British lawmakers are asking why the Financial Conduct Authority, which is also known as the FCA and regulates lenders and other financial companies in the UK, did not intervene in the Greensill saga.

The paper noted that Germany's financial regulator, BaFin, had banned Greensill from regular operations on March 3 because of its apparent over-indebtedness.

The Guardian said some UK MPs are worried that Greensill's filing for insolvency on Monday could put jobs at risk at one of the companies that has borrowed heavily from it in the past, the metals manufacturer GFG Alliance.

GFG employs 35,000 people globally, with around 5,000 of the jobs in the UK.

Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative Party member of Parliament who co-chairs the all-party parliamentary group on fair business banking, told The Guardian: "The FCA exists to protect consumers and businesses from abuses of financial institutions, but, after less than 10 years, already has a string of scandals under its belt."

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