Towergate seeks £665 million cash injection

another in a long line of organisatrions with plans and ambitions their balance sheet could never fulfill -

Watch this space

... and with the impending implosion of the EuroZone (with its sovereign debt issues), who's gonna want to buy into an IFA business??

Agree with 'IFA' - watch this space - "another one bites the dust"??

well if this doesn't come under the classification of junk bonds, then what does??

I feel we should be given more factual and financial information about this , as this edifice sounds very shaky. Is FSA happy for firms to merge, acquire, accumulate such large debts? A small number of shareholders seem to be main beneficiaries with promises of profitability later often unmet. We understood IFA firms were supposed to hold cash reserves commensurate with their turnover and likely claims in order to trade so why are firms like Towergate allowed to get into this position?

PS Are there any positive stories out there in the financial sector?

Put me down for two! :-)

Yes Bridget, there are some positive stories out here, but they are mostly found among small quiet firms who have resolved to have nothing to do with projects like Towergate. Booming morally bankrupt edifices run by men with towering egos and tiny intellects? No thanks.

Pisa

Shut

Horse

Bolt

I know nothing about Towergate or its operations (I suppose I could look it up, but it's Friday and I'm going home shortly), though it would be interesting to learn how it got into a state of needing this much capital, presumably to prevent it from going under.

Maybe excessive regulation had something to do with it? Just a guess.

That aside, I can't say I'd be very enthusiastic about buying into a Bond issue based on refinancing existing debt. Sooner or later, it's all going to have to be repaid and I'd want to be first in the queue if Towergate goes belly up. What do Towergate's P&L accounts look like for the past 5 years?

I remember a few weeks ago a story on these pages from one of the larger IFA's about "the cottage industry IFA" being on his/her way out as big was beautiful. Responses from "cottage industry" owners were that we have continuously been told by larger providers that our days are numbered. However, we continue to run our businesses in a low key and profitable manner as we have no-one to be accountable to except our clients (shouldn't everyone) as we have no master to serve.

£665 million of corporate debt! Thank God I'm a "cottage industry" or I'd be sick with worry.

Capital Adequacy !!!

This is just another one the rest of us will end up paying for.

How many more FSA

Towergate bought the most commission hungry (only initial in the main) anti what will be RDR outcome company in Edinburgh.You have to wonder about the numpties running this business.

Bye bye Towergate - maybe Towry Law with their fee proposition (which isn't actually a fee proposition) will end up with the poor clients.

I have absolutely no inside knowledge about Towergate but I do know, from paying attention to the trade press, that they have over the last decade become an absolutely huge general insurance broker business. The IFA business is much more recent and tiny by comparison. I suspect most of this corporate debt is in relation to the much bigger general insurance business and it probably isn't an unreasonable amount given the size of that business.

The restructuring of the debt is for the General Insurance business and has no bearing on the IFA element.

Please check your facts first before commenting.

A company taking the opportunity to re-finance away from senior debt to non-amortising commercial debt - actually makes a lot of business sense and has nothing to do with the quality of the business.

Also, as Stanley points out it is worth remembering that the IFA business of Towergate is a very small part of the overall business.

Sounds like sour grapes from a failed Bankassurer!

Bankassurer? Dont you mean order taker?

Maybe there clients should start wearing scarfs to stop the debt!!!!