Landsbanki Guernsey administrators announce third distribution

The joint administrators of the Guernsey branch of the failed Icelandic bank Landsbanki said a third distribution to creditors of between 11 and 12.5p in the pound will take place in January.

|

The joint administrators of the Guernsey branch of the failed Icelandic bank Landsbanki said a third distribution to creditors of between 11 and 12.5p in the pound will take place in January.

This will bring the total repayments to creditors to date of between 66 and 67.5p in the pound, the administrators, Deloitte, said. 

They also updated their estimate for the ultimate recovery for creditors to be between 85 and 91p.

Deloitte said the increase reflected “the largely successful realisation of assets in 2009 driven, in part, by better-than-feared market conditions, and the intense efforts of the administration team”.

It added that these estimated returns were still subject to “a wide range of factors primarily connected to the UK residential property market, many of which are outside of the joint administrators control, which may result in the actual return being lower or higher than this range”.

Deloitte said it was waiting for the completion of a sale of a significant asset  and the receipt of a second distribution from Heritable Bank Plc, which is also in administration, after which it will write to inform Landsbanki creditors with the exact details of their third payment amount. It said this was expected to take place in early January.

The joint administrators are also scheduled to release their third interim report to creditors at this time.

Administration extended

The Landsbanki administration process has been extended to 6 January 2011, to ensure the maximum realisation for depositors of the bank’s remaining assets, Deloitte said.

Some 1,600 depositors, mostly British, had about £120m in the Guernsey branch of Iceland’s Landsbanki when it went into administration in October 2008. At the time, Guernsey, unlike the UK, did not have a depositors’ compensation scheme, with the result that many of these depositors have been petitioning government officials and others in hopes of drawing attention to their plight. 

The new Guernsey Banking Deposit Compensation Scheme was brought in at the end of November, 2008, and provides compensation of up to £50,000 per person per licensed bank, with a £100m cap in any five-year period.

MORE ARTICLES ON