The examiner of Dublin specialist lender International Securities Trading Corporation (ISTC) will next week seek an extension of about a month to its court protection to allow talks with potential investors to continue. Simon Carswell, Finance Correspondent, reports.
A number of Irish and international parties, including investment bank Goldman Sachs and hedge funds Silverpoint and Avenue Capital, are considering an investment in ISTC, which sought the protection of the High Court last December from estimated debts of €871 million.
About 50 per cent its bank creditors have sold collateral held against loans they provided to the insolvent Dublin company. Any shortfall between the loans and the proceeds netted from the sale of collateral automatically becomes a debt on ISTC's books. The examiner, Dublin accountant John McStay, is believed to be close to finalising the exact positions of each of ISTC's bankers.
Mr McStay will seek more time from the High Court next week to allow him to introduce new investment into the struggling firm. He is allowed up to 100 days' court protection which would extend the period of examinership until early next month.
ISTC, which was set up by former Anglo Irish Bank executive Tiarnan O'Mahoney, is the largest Irish casualty of the global credit crunch. Its survival is seen as a measure of the international banking community's faith in the Irish corporate sector, given the large number of high-profile banks owed money by the firm.
Its creditors were described by a judge as "a veritable who's who of the banking work on an international scale". They include ABN Amro, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Scotland. Its shareholders include some of the wealthiest Irish business people and developers.
