Specialty finance firm Greensill Capital is on track for a quick unraveling after Credit Suisse Group AG suspended $ 10 billion in investment funds that began fueling SoftBank Group Corp support.
With a major source of funding frozen, Greensill hired Grant Thornton to lead him through a possible restructuring. According to people familiar with the company, he could file for insolvency, the UK equivalent of bankruptcy, within days.
According to people familiar with Greensill, he is with private equity giant Apollo Global Management Inc. selling its operating business for about $ 100 million. Although a transaction would not apply to all of Greensill’s assets, the amount represents a bit of the highest valuation of $ 4 billion.
UK-based Greensill is the brainchild of the former Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley financier Lex Greensill. Founded in 2011, Greensill specializes in an area known as supply chain financing, a form of short-term cash advance that allows companies to extend the time they need to pay their bills.
Greensill packs the cash advances into bonds such as bonds that give investors a higher return than they can get from bank deposits. Credit Suisse’s funds were a major buyer of these bonds, giving Greensill a firepower to expand its business. Investors in the funds include pensions, corporate treasurers and wealthy families.