GAM Holding then said it will start winding down a fund that invests in loans sourced by Greensill.
The freezes on about $US11 billion ($14.1 billion) worth of funds deprived Greensill of large buyers for his assets at the same time as regulators in Germany are putting pressure on his bank to diversify its holdings.
Greensill provides a service that allows suppliers to big companies to be paid earlier for a fee. These financing arrangements are then packaged up and rolled into securities that are sold by Credit Suisse.
Founded by Australian Lex Greensill in Bundaberg in 2011, Greensill has grown into being one of the biggest supply chain financiers in the world and has been lauded as one of Australia’s great exports. It was planning a massive initial public offering possibly this year.
But in recent months clients have been able to more easily access cheap credit, thus removing the need for supply chain financiers.
London-headquartered Greensill has sought key insolvency protections, known as “safe harbour protections”, in Australia to allow it to continue to trade in the event it is insolvent while protecting its directors from criminal liability.
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SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund had already substantially written down its $US1.5 billion holding in Greensill, and was considering dropping the valuation to close to zero, people familiar with the matter said.
Greensill has had a rough few years with a number of offshore clients collapsing while its major local customers gave up on the program of supply chain finance after complaints they were using the products unfairly.
