Lex Greensill and David Cameron to appear before the Treasury Committee next week

The administrators of Greensill Capital UK said US$3.7bn of the US$17.7bn of assets the failed supply chain finance firm had under management had been collected by mid-April. The administrator, Grant Thornton, expects to pay back about US$275mln of the US$1.46bn in claims to Greensill’s unsecured lenders. The claims on Greensill’s UK unit include US$500mln owed to several trade insurers, including Tokio Marine Holdings, Chubb, Swiss Re and the Zurich Insurance Group. A meeting of creditors to the UK business will be held on May 14 but the administration is not expected to end until March 2022, at which point the business will be liquidated or dissolved. Greensill Capital, which used to buy up firms’ invoices at a discount, parcel them up and sell them on, went belly-up after insurers stopped insuring the company. Meanwhile, it has been revealed that former prime minister, David Cameron, will give evidence before the Treasury committee next week in the House of Commons over his controversial role as a go-between for the company. Lex Greensill, the company’s founder, is also set to appear before members of parliament (MPs), as part of the Treasury Committee’s enquiry into the collapsed company’s attempts to embed itself into the government’s purchasing decisions mechanism. Lex Greensill has yet to comment on the collapse of his company while Cameron has admitted to poor judgement when he decided to use the old boys’ network rather than official channels when lobbying for Greensill. “The committee is determined to answer the key question as to whether HM Treasury responded appropriately to the lobbying on behalf of Greensill Capital, including that carried out by David Cameron,” said Mel Stride, the conservative MP who is chairing the cross-party Treasury committee. “Following our first evidence session of the inquiry last week with experts, next week we’ll hear from two of the key figures: Lex Greensill and David Cameron. The committee will want to carefully examine their actions in relation to Greensill Capital and its interactions with HM Treasury,” Stride said.