Gupta Family Group Alliance ( GFG Alliance ) is an international group of businesses associated with businessman Sanjeev Gupta and the British Gupta family. Collectively, companies in the alliance are involved in mining, industry and trading.
58-489: In March 2021, GFG Alliance was struggling to secure new financing after the collapse of one of its lenders, Greensill Capital . GFG was put under brief observation by the German financial regulator BaFin for their business with Greensill. On 31 March Credit Suisse began insolvency proceedings against Liberty Commodities Limited , a GFG subsidiary, at a London court. The action was brought by another bank, Citigroup , which
116-459: A City grandee he has a genuine instinct for social justice." Myners never donated to the Labour Party , but in 2007 he offered £12,700 to Gordon Brown 's leadership campaign. As City Minister Myners had responsibility for leading the £500bn 2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package in the aftermath of the 2007–2008 financial crisis , as well as for a number of major agencies sponsored by
174-518: A Trustee of ARK, the charity supported by London's major hedge fund managers. In February 2011, Lord Myners became chairman and a partner of Autonomous Research LLP, an independent equity research firm. In June 2011, Lord Myners became chairman and a partner of Cevian Capital (UK) LLP, the UK arm of Cevian Capital, the largest active ownership (or activist) manager in Europe. In October 2012, Lord Myners
232-568: A financial journalist moving into the financial sector in 1974 as a junior portfolio manager at N M Rothschild & Sons . After serving on the Rothschild board of directors from 1977 to 1985, Myners moved to pension fund manager Gartmore Group as chief executive and was appointed chairman in 1987. During his tenure Gartmore's assets under management rose from £1.2bn in 1985 to £75bn, with Myners personally earning an estimated £30m. After retiring from Gartmore in 2000, he chose to focus on
290-685: A hairdresser. He had no siblings. He attended Truro School , an independent Methodist school, on a scholarship. He graduated from the University of London , Institute of Education, with a first class honours degree in education and a certificate in education (teaching qualification), and became a secondary school teacher in Wandsworth with the Inner London Education Authority (1971–72). He left teaching after two years and subsequently joined The Daily Telegraph as
348-458: A major source of business. With Greensill's role as a lender through Taulia taken over by JPMorgan, Athene had fewer reasons to acquire Greensill's book of business. On 8 March 2021, Greensill filed for insolvency protection, as it found itself unable to repay a $ 140 million loan to Credit Suisse and was "hit by defaults" from Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance , one of its main customers. As of 25 March 2021, Credit Suisse executives estimated that
406-800: A minister. PADA morphed into NEST, the National Employment Savings Trust . Myners also served as chairman of the Low Pay Commission from 2006 until 2008, as a member of the Commission on English Prisons, established by the Howard League for Penal Reform , and the Green Fiscal Commission , and was a member of the Commission on Vulnerable Employment sponsored by the TUC , and a trustee of
464-628: A number of third sector and public service posts, including chairman of the trustees of the Tate , chairman of the Guardian Media Group , chairman of the Low Pay Commission and non-executive director of the Bank of England . Myners was adopted at the age of two by a Cornish family, and grew up in Truro , Cornwall. His adopting father was a self-employed butcher and fisherman and his mother
522-429: A possible restructuring or insolvency filing which was expected to happen within a few days. On 2 March Greensill Capital announced that it was considering selling the operating part of its business, according to a report by Bloomberg News , to Apollo Global Management or an associated firm, Athene Holdings. Greensill Capital stated the firms had a "period of exclusivity with a leading global financial institution with
580-402: A practice Greensill called "future accounts receivables finance". In traditional factoring , a firm will sell the invoices it has issued to clients to a third party; the third party then collects the money owed from those clients. In reverse factoring, a third party (in this case, Greensill) instead pays debts owed by a company to its suppliers at a slight discount, but much more quickly than
638-677: A reward for his contribution to the Bank. After the Labour Party's loss in the 2010 general election in May 2010, Myners remained in the House of Lords. Until 2014 Myners served as a backbench Labour peer, before resigning to sit as a non-affiliated member and from 7 July 2015 as a crossbencher . Myners joined the board of RIT Capital Partners PLC , an investment fund chaired and sponsored by Lord (Jacob) Rothschild , and later that year he became
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#1732791622047696-521: A scandal involving the chair of the Co-op Bank, Paul Flowers . Myners limited his payment for this work to £1. His report recommended replacing the Co-op's mostly elected board with an appointed one of indepedent directors with business experience, with the members represented by a National Members Council. The recommendations were heavily criticised from some in the co-operative sector, who described
754-564: A separate paper to the Treasury Select Committee, Slaughter and May partner Charles Randell, who accompanied Myners at meetings with RBS noted that Myners had insisted that Goodwin should not be rewarded for failure and all action should be taken to mitigate cost. The RBS representatives at that meeting on 11 October did not indicate that the Board of RBS had significantly enhanced Goodwin's pension entitlement 24hrs earlier as
812-468: A view to concluding a transaction with them this week," regarding the sale. On 12 March it was announced that the deal with Athene had fallen through. The deal collapsed in part due to the low value of Greensill's assets, which were further reduced by the preservation of technology firm Taulia, through a partnership between Taulia, JPMorgan Chase , and other banks. Taulia facilitates lending from several finance companies to clients, but counted Greensill as
870-462: A wider range of interests, acting as non-executive director and chairman of a number of companies and third sector institutions. From 2002 to 2007 Myners was chairman of Aspen Insurance Holdings, a Bermuda-based insurance company. Myners was appointed interim chairman of retailer Marks & Spencer in 2004 in the midst of a takeover battle with Phillip Green 's Arcadia Group , leaving the position two years later in 2006 after successfully resisting
928-539: Is located near a hydroelectric plant, which drains the basin of the 114,000 acre Estate. Alcan designed all their smelters that way. The Estate includes the north face of Ben Nevis . According to reports, the Scottish National Party mandated that the Estate never be split from the hydro plant and aluminium smelter but Gupta ignored them and placed ownership of the Estate in a company that is domiciled on
986-496: The Financial Times reported that Softbank had invested more than $ 500 million into Credit Suisse investment funds that financed Greensill's activities . Greensill, in turn, provided supply-chain financing to various companies backed by Softbank, in what reporters called a "circular flow of funding". The funds' exposure to Softbank-backed companies amounted to 15% of its assets, according to marketing documents. In addition,
1044-492: The Financial Times , defaults by GFG Alliance are partly responsible for Greensill Capital's ultimate insolvency. On 8 March 2021, Bloomberg reported that GFG Alliance believed it would become insolvent if Greensill collapsed and had defaulted on some of its bonds. In April 2024, Grant Thornton, the administrators for Greensill, published a report where they revealed that they were still owed round $ 587.2m (£472m) from
1102-718: The Guardian Media Group , publisher of The Guardian and The Observer newspapers and was appointed a non-executive director of the Bank of England . Between August 2007 and October 2008 he was Chairman of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA), the body tasked under the Pensions Act 2007 with implementing the UK Government's plans for a new national pensions savings scheme for private sector workers on low and moderate incomes. He resigned this position on his appointment as
1160-727: The Isle of Man . The 2016 deal was worth £330 million and was guaranteed by the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer . Conservative finance spokesperson Murdo Fraser was critical about the alleged breach of the SNP agreement and urged the SNP to "take whatever steps are necessary to protect public funds". In May 2021 investors began to pay more attention to the sale of GFG Alliance's French steel plants Ascoval and Hayange causing GFG Alliance to hire Rothschild to run an accelerated M&A process of
1218-516: The Royal Bank of Scotland . Myners said that he did not approve the details of Goodwin's pension settlement when it was arranged the previous autumn as part of the government's bailout of RBS , pointing out that this was a matter for the Board of RBS. However, former RBS chairman Sir Tom McKillop disputed Myners' account in later evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, insisting that "every element" of Goodwin's financial compensation on leaving
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#17327916220471276-876: The Smith Institute , an education and public policy think tank. He was Chairman of the Trustees of the Tate, a past trustee at the National Gallery and the Royal Academy Trust, trustee of the Charity Aid Foundation and served on the Advisory Council of St. Paul's Cathedral Institute. Myners resigned from these posts when he became a Minister. On 3 October 2008 Myners was appointed Financial Services Secretary to
1334-711: The Credit Suisse funds. According to Credit Suisse, other investors in the funds "suffered no loss as a result of these relationships". Until its insolvency, Greensill Capital, along with its German subsidiary Greensill Bank, had a significant exposure to GFG Alliance , a group of businesses associated with steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta . The exposure of Lex Greensill's firms to GFG Alliance totalled $ 5 billion. Conversely, GFG Alliance depended heavily on financing by Greensill Capital to conduct its operations. GFG Alliance relied especially on Greensill Capital's future accounts receivables finance program. According to
1392-532: The GFG Alliance. In 2020, the German financial regulator BaFin opened an investigation into Greensill Bank's accounting. In March 2021, BaFin filed a criminal complaint against Greensill Bank and banned activity at the bank. In 2018, former British Prime Minister David Cameron became an advisor to Greensill. While his position was unpaid, he was given shares that could have been worth £70 million in
1450-448: The House of Lords as a Labour peer until 2014, resigning to become a non-affiliated member before joining the crossbench group in 2015. Myners began working in the financial sector in 1974 at N M Rothschild & Sons and was appointed to the board of directors in 1977. Subsequently, he held a number of high-profile business roles, including as chairman of Gartmore Group , Land Securities and Marks & Spencer . He also served in
1508-561: The Myners Principles which formed the basis for good stewardship of the investment of pension funds and endowments. The Myners Report also made the case for investors taking a more active interest in the ownership of investee companies ('activism') and argued that investment banks should no longer be paid for research by transaction commission, a practice which he argued was misaligned with good ownership and lacking in transparency and accountability. In 2000 Myners became Chairman of
1566-661: The Treasury (a position commonly referred to as City Minister) in HM Treasury , in Prime Minister Gordon Brown 's ministry . He was created a Life Peer on 16 October 2008, gazetted as " Baron Myners , of Truro in the County of Cornwall". Although never active in politics before his appointment as a finance minister, The Independent reported that "a Labour Cabinet insider" said of him that "for
1624-567: The Treasury including The Debt Management Office , National Savings & Investment , UK Financial Investments and the Asset Protection Agency . Myners also handled the routine ministerial interface between the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority. In February 2009 Lord Myners was at the centre of controversy concerning the amount of pension paid to Fred Goodwin , the former chairman of
1682-570: The administrators for Greensill, published a report where they revealed that they were still owed round $ 587.2m (£472m) from the GFG Alliance. The GFG Alliance includes: GFG Alliance's interests are represented to the South Australian parliament by lobbying firm, Bespoke Approach. Greensill Capital Greensill Capital was a financial services company based in the United Kingdom and Australia . Its main business
1740-768: The age of 73 after a fall at home and then contracting COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in England . Myners was awarded a CBE in 2001. He also received an Honorary Doctorate in Law from the University of Exeter and was a visiting fellow at Nuffield College Oxford. He was also an Executive Fellow of London Business School . In July 2010 he was elected chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Corporate Governance and in November 2010
1798-521: The bank had been fully discussed with Myners. The Treasury Committee concluded in their report that "…it would have been far better if Lord Myners had given a stronger, clearer direction of Government requirements for a bank in receipt of public funds and had assured himself by demanding to be kept informed of the detailed negotiations that were taking place…. It would, we believe, have been open to Lord Myners to insist that Goodwin should have been dismissed…. The RBS Board had shown itself to be incompetent in
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1856-674: The case of an initial public offering . According to news sources, Cameron lobbied members of the British government on behalf of Greensill. In April 2021, HM Treasury released text messages sent by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to Cameron from April 2020, which showed that Sunak had "pushed the team" to consider Greensill's request for emergency government-backed COVID-19 loans, before ultimately rejecting their application in June 2020. The Treasury refused to release
1914-627: The company agreed with an order by its board to sell all four of its planes, which included a Gulfstream 650 . In late 2020, Greensill began a search for a new auditor after growing too large for the firm's then auditor, Saffery Champness . KPMG , Deloitte , members of the Big Four , and smaller accounting firm BDO all declined to become Greensill's new auditor. According to its court filings, Greensill had three main businesses: supply chain financing (also called "reverse factoring" ), accounts receivables financing (also known as "factoring" ) and
1972-579: The company through its Vision Fund . This investment allowed Greensill to expand quickly, increasing its employee headcount from 500 at 2019's close to over 1000 in early 2021, located in sixteen offices. Due to the Softbank investment, the firm delayed considering other fundraising options such as an initial public offering. By late 2020, the firm had begun pursuing other investors, aiming to raise between $ 500 and $ 600 million and to subsequently complete an IPO within two years. In order to achieve its goal,
2030-494: The coverage, including by taking legal action against the insurers, but was ultimately unsuccessful. After this failure, Greensill attempted to secure insurance from other firms, but did not succeed. On 1 March 2021, Credit Suisse froze $ 10 billion in funds that were invested in Greensill's financial products and held by its supply-chain investment funds . According to the Financial Times , "Credit Suisse’s concerns about
2088-607: The emergence of Greensill and other similar firms as they do not face the same level of regulatory scrutiny. Those in favour of reverse factoring say that it benefits suppliers as it settles their debts more quickly. Those critical of the practice generally oppose it as it can allow companies to obscure debts, and encourage habitual late payments by the stronger side in a business relation. In order to finance its activities, Greensill relied on loans provided by specialised supply-chain investment funds managed by Credit Suisse : Greensill regularly issued notes that were often bought by
2146-491: The funds came to a head because insurance policies covering defaults in a portion of its assets lapsed over the weekend." According to The Wall Street Journal , Credit Suisse was also concerned with Greensill's large exposure to companies tied to steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta . In March 2021, Greensill considered filing for insolvency after the Credit Suisse freeze. On 1 March 2021 The Wall Street Journal reported that Greensill appointed Grant Thornton to help it during
2204-571: The funds to eight different companies linked to the steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta . The National Audit Office warned that the taxpayer could lose all the money that was lent, a potential £335m loss. In July 2020, a group of insurers led by Tokio Marine , which were insuring $ 4.6 billion of its working capital, announced to Greensill that it would stop providing the coverage. The decision came after Tokio Marine discovered that an employee at one of its subsidiaries had provided coverage that exceeded its risk limits. Greensill tried to obtain an extension of
2262-404: The funds' investments has been solely sourced to Greensill, which was itself backed by Softbank. According to a March 2021 report by The Wall Street Journal , the amount placed by Softbank in the Credit Suisse funds were closer to $ 1.5 billion and had been invested following a request of Lex Greensill to Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son . By July 2020, Softbank had redeemed all of its investments in
2320-603: The funds, as Greensill had split up loans backing the funds' investments (including loans granted to GFG Alliance) into a double trust structure. On 3 April 2021, it came to light that the Jahama Highland Estates (formerly the " Alcan Estate") had been purchased in 2016 as part of the Rio Tinto Mines deal for the Lochaber aluminium plant, because the furnace requires so much power that the smelter
2378-639: The future. On 31 May 2021, it was revealed that Governor Justice had personally guaranteed the loans received from Greensill, totaling nearly $ 700 million. A number of German towns and cities have pulled their money from small, private banks after losing millions of euros in the closure of Greensill. Credit Suisse's chief risk and compliance officer and its head of investment banking were reported to have resigned, due to losses from Greensill's collapse and $ 4.7 billion in losses associated with Archegos Capital Management . Lord Myners Paul Myners, Baron Myners , CBE (1 April 1948 – 16 January 2022)
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2436-524: The governance recommendations as "Plc style" but were adopted by the group members. On 1 February 2015 Lord Myners was appointed Chair of the Court of Governors and Council of the London School of Economics and Political Science , succeeding Peter Sutherland . In 2016, Lord Myners took up role as University Chancellor of the University of Exeter from Baroness Benjamin . In 2020 Lord Myners
2494-582: The hostile merger attempt. From 2006 to 2008 he was chairman of Liberty Ermitage, a fund-of-funds manager. and Land Securities . Myners compiled reports on institutional investment (the Myners Report , questioning whether pension funds were acting in the interests of their beneficiaries), equity capital raising and governance for HM Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry [two reports before 1997 and three after]. This report gave rise to
2552-502: The investment funds, thereby providing Greensill with cash. The repayment of the loans was secured by Greensill's claims to the repayment of the funds paid to its clients' suppliers. However, according to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal , the Credit Suisse investment funds are alleged to have bought notes tied to Greensill's "future accounts receivables finance" activity: these loans were only secured by future and uncertain sales, and were therefore riskier. On 14 June 2020,
2610-566: The investors in its supply-chain funds could sustain losses of up to $ 3 billion. Prior to Greensill's insolvency, the funds' assets amounted to $ 10 billion. On 15 March 2021, Bluestone Resources Inc., a coal mining company owned by West Virginia governor Jim Justice , sued Greensill for fraud. It alleges that Greensill departed from standard supply chain finance to engage in a more speculative practice, offering loans not only based on debts that other companies had already incurred, but also based on transactions that Greensill predicted would occur in
2668-601: The management of the bank, steering it towards catastrophe… We suspect that Lord Myners' City background, and naiveté as to the public perception of these matters, may have led him to place too much trust in an RBS Board." The report of the Treasury Select Committee was criticised by many. The respected commentator Hugo Dixon wrote in the Daily Telegraph and the Breaking Views website that the committee should have got ‘a sense of proportion’. He wrote that during
2726-475: The messages Cameron sent to Sunak, but revealed that Cameron had also "informally" called two other ministers from the department about the same topic. On 12 April 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered an inquiry into the collapse of Greensill and the lobbying efforts of David Cameron. In June 2021 it was revealed that the government-owned British Business Bank lent Greensill up to $ 400m without detailed checks being performed. Greensill in turn lent all
2784-493: The offering of bonds based on debt it has purchased, and through funds managed with partner organisations including Credit Suisse . American private equity firm General Atlantic invested $ 250 million in Greensill in 2018. In 2018 Greensill was subject to extended media coverage and a call from British City grandee Lord Myners for a formal investigation of the company's involvement in scandal at Anglo-Swiss asset manager GAM. In early 2019, Softbank invested $ 800 million in
2842-607: The original company would have. The third party later receives payment from the company. "Future accounts receivables finance" consists in the lending of money to a company before a sale has been made, based on the expectation of future sales and future payments. Because future accounts receivables finance is based on prospective — and thus uncertain — payments, it is considered to be a risky activity. Though banks have typically conducted supply chain financing, regulation and capital restrictions targeting them have made such loans less profitable. This regulatory trend has in part led to
2900-530: The same weekend of the Goodwin pension issue Myners and two Treasury Civil Servants – John Kingman and Tom Scholar – ‘managed to pull off a remarkable feat in pretty much every way. Every other item in that list was ticked off. None was a trivial exercise. All items required attention to complex details; most required negotiations with third parties and banging heads together. Few other Ministers would have been able to accomplish what Myners did that weekend.’ In
2958-471: The two assets. In May 2022, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced they were launching a criminal investigation into GFG for suspected fraud linked to the collapse of its main lender Greensill Capital in 2021. This is ongoing. GFG Alliance was Greensill’s biggest client and it was reported at the time of the collapse that it had an exposure totalling $ 5bn. In April 2024, Grant Thornton,
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#17327916220473016-524: The worldwide operations of Burger King and another that bought the European operations of Birds Eye and Findus. In December 2013 he joined the Board of the Co-operative Group as senior independent director to produce and publish for the members an independent report on governance. The Co-op had been brought close to collapse in that year by losses in its banking subsidiary and suffered from
3074-578: Was a British businessman and politician. In October 2008 he was elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer and was appointed City Minister in the Labour Government of Gordon Brown , serving until May 2010. As City Minister Myners was responsible for overseeing the financial services sector during the 2007–2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, including leading the controversial 2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package . Myners sat in
3132-604: Was acting under instruction from Credit Suisse. It related to Credit Suisse's supply-chain investment funds , worth nearly $ 10 billion, whose funds were party invested through Greensill Capital, which had placed $ 3.6 billion in GFG, part of which had funnelled down to LCL. It was expected for the balance sheet of Credit Suisse to absorb significant damage as a result. The bank also launched insolvency proceedings against other entities affiliated with GFG. According to The Wall Street Journal , Credit Suisse would face difficulties in recouping
3190-667: Was active in seeking funding for the Stadium for Cornwall . He was first married to Tessa Stanford-Smith, a school teacher, from 1972 to 1993, and then to Alison Macleod, former chair of the Contemporary Art Society and trustee of The Royal Academy Development Trust . He had four daughters and a son through two marriages. He lived in London and had a cottage near Falmouth, Cornwall. Myners died at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, on 16 January 2022, at
3248-519: Was appointed President of the Howard League for Penal Reform, replacing the outgoing Lord Carlile of Berriew QC . In March 2013, Lord Myners joined the board of OJSC MegaFon, a London-listed company that is one of the three largest mobile operators in Russia. Myners was appointed to represent the interest of independent shareholders and served on the Board until the end of 2017. Lord Myners
3306-567: Was the chairman of Platform Acquisition Holdings Ltd, which in May 2013 listed on the London Stock Exchange, raising $ 905 million earmarked for acquiring a target business expected to have an enterprise value of between $ 750 million and $ 2.5 billion. Platform was a Special Purpose Acquisition Company or SPAC (referred to in the US as a blank cheque corporation). He subsequently Chaired a number of other SPACs, including one that acquired
3364-401: Was the provision of supply chain financing and related services. The company was founded in 2011 by Lex Greensill . It filed for insolvency protection on 8 March 2021. The firm was founded in 2011, with an initial focus on supply-chain finance. The company had since diversified its revenue streams, offering conventional banking services through a German subsidiary, Greensill Bank ( de ),
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