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The Serious Fraud Office have issued a press release stating that they are to conduct an investigation into the business activities of the trade finance group Versailles. The decision follows an inquiry into Versailles in 1999 by the Department of Trade and Industry. The information provided to the SFO following this inquiry has been deemed sufficient reason for the investigation to be authorised. The SFO press release states that there is a possibility of “serious and complex fraud at Versailles.”
Serious Fraud Office
03/08/2000
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After last week’s British Virgin Islands hearing, a court ruling has been made that promises to reveal more about the reasons behind the collapse of the trade finance group, Versailles, in January of this year. The group of investors that funded Versailles are effectively split into two camps, one championed by Mr Moseley and the other by Carl Cushnie, Versailles’ chief executive and majority shareholder.
02/08/2000
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Two members of the group of wealthy individuals that helped fund the trade finance group Versailles (which went into receivership in January), have launched a court action in an attempt to recover their money and to discover the reasons for the group’s failure. Accountants found that the disgraced company had logged a series of false transactions estimated to amount to Ј69m. The claim has been made in a court in the British Virgin Islands. Versailles’ chief executive, Carl Cushnie, has tried and failed to have the action thrown out of court.
02/08/2000
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According to The Guardian, Versailles, the trade finance company which went into receivership in January 2000, owing its banks approximately Ј60m, is known to have made deals totalling Ј495,209 with Carl Cushnie Jr, the son of the company’s founder.
02/08/2000
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Two members of the group of wealthy individuals that helped fund Versailles, the trade finance group which collapsed in January, will go to court in the British Virgin Islands on Thursday 27th July. They are hoping to recover their investments and to discover the reasons for the group’s collapse. It is understood their plan will be opposed by representatives of Versailles’ chief executive, Carl Cushnie, who will argue for an alternative proposal supported by the majority of the investor group.
02/08/2000
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Two members of the group of wealthy individuals that helped fund the trade finance group Versailles (which went into receivership in January), have launched a court action in an attempt to recover their money and to discover the reasons for the group’s failure. Accountants found that the disgraced company had logged a series of false transactions estimated to amount to Ј69m. The claim has been made in a court in the British Virgin Islands. Versailles’ chief executive, Carl Cushnie, has tried and failed to have the action thrown out of court.
02/08/2000
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The Canadian Factoring Association was brought into being to lobby the government and the Export Development Corporation (EDC). In the last five years, the government-owned EDC was granted the ability to offer domestic credit insurance as an enhancement to their export insurance programmes. There was a clause, which enabled them to handle a client's domestic business if more than 10% of that client's foreign receivables were covered by the EDC.
01/08/2000
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The factoring market in Germany has remained fairly steady in the last few months, with DG Bank continuing their dominance of the market. It remains to be seen whether Eurofactors will live up to their potential and stir up the market. The most significant development in recent months, according to Ulrich Bongartz, Managing Director of Bertelsmann Distribution GmbH, is the competition which is hotting up for filling the financing gap in an business to business transaction on the internet between two companies, previously unknown to each other.
01/08/2000
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There have been unprecedented numbers of mergers and acquisitions in the US factoring industry in the last 12 months, with CIT buying two smaller factors and GMAC's purchase of the Bank of New York. As yet, the consequences of this market consolidation are unclear. John Heffer, President of HSBC Business Credit (USA) Inc., laments the fact that there are no reliable industry statistics as very few factors publish their volume figures.
01/08/2000
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The government has succeeded in reducing interest rates to between 25-35%, which means that factors are having to operate under very small margins.
Eight banks have been amalgamated into the Central Turkish Fund, which will mean at least five or six factoring companies will disappear from the market. These factoring subsidiaries of banks are dormant at the moment and if they have not already ceased trading, will soon do so. As a result, the Turkish market is going through an interesting period of transition.
01/08/2000
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Two new players have recently joined the Romanian market, The Romanian Commercial Bank and Demir Bank of Romania in offering factoring services within the banking sector.
01/08/2000
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After the regional financial crisis of 1997 the Malaysian market is finally beginning to turn around. With a recorded growth in GDP of 19.1%, Mr Quek of Arab-Malyasian Merchant Bank said that factoring companies are now preparing to re-enter the market, buoyed by low interest rates and having gained more confidence than they had just a few years ago.
01/08/2000
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According to George Georghiou, Manager of Laiki Factors in Cyprus, there is likely to be a significant growth of around 30% in total factored volume in the year 2000. This is mainly due to tight liquidity caused by a downturn in the stock market, which many entrepreneurs invested in during 1999. They now require working capital to meet their business needs. As a result of this, factoring has seen unprecedented levels of business.
01/08/2000
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Consolidation among companies that provide finance for small businesses is making it harder for companies to get cash, reports the Wall Street Journal. The number of mergers and acquisitions in the last 12 months has been unprecedented leading many industry observers to comment that clients may find it impossible to tell from one week to the next just who to send their new invoices to. As the firms change hands and grow, their policies towards smaller clients change and their appetite for thinly capitalised clients has decreased.
01/08/2000
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Alliance & Leicester is trying to put together a joint venture with an invoice discounting and factoring supplier to offer a full range of business banking services, although further details on who is round the discussion table are currently not available. The new managing director of Alliance & Leicester, Peter McNamara, recruited from Lloyds TSB this year, is aiming to increase levels of business served through its Girobank small-business division - which will be renamed Alliance Business Banking - by at least 20-30 per cent a year.
01/08/2000
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