First payout to London Capital & Finance investors pushed back
Investors in mini-bond firm London Capital & Finance will have to wait longer to receive their first dividend since its collapse, according to an administrators’ report published today.
Administrators Smith & Williamson estimate a return to the bondholders of as little as 25 per cent of their investment in the firm, which failed in January owing £237m to more than 11,000 investors.
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The administrators said they had hoped to pay an initial dividend to bondholders by the end of the summer, however, this has now been pushed back.
Smith & Williamson said it had hoped to start returning money to investors from one of LCF’s investments, Independent Oil & Gas, but had delayed the first payments on advice from its specialist oil and gas advisers.
it said it planned to realise the return from Independent Oil & Gas in “an orderly fashion”.
The administrators said they expect it to take a number of years to complete their investigations due to the “level of complexity of this case”.
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The report said LCF’s principal director Andy Thompson claimed through his solicitors to be too unwell to assist the administrators.
The administrators also said they were having to deal with a “concerted and very likely coordinated exercise on the part of a number of individuals aimed at frustrating the joint administrators’ enquiries, for their own reasons”.
Smith & Williamson said its total costs to 29 July were £2.3m, with 5,619 hours charged at an average rate of £412 per hour.
Law firm Mishcon de Reya has incurred costs of £2.5m, of which £557,000 has been paid.