Meteor buys NDF and DRL struc prod books

Meteor Asset Management has bought the structured product books of both NDF Administration and Defined Returns Limited.

The sale excludes Lehman Brothers-backed structured products for which the FSCS has begun considering compensation claims.

Under the terms of the sale, Meteor will take on responsibility for customer account administration including the processing of income payments, surrenders and maturities.

NDFA and Defined Returns went into administration on 14 October 2009 as they were unable to meet their liabilities for potential compensation claims for Lehman-backed structured plans. Since then administrator Grant Thornton has been reviewing the firms' finances.

Grant Thornton's Martin Ellis says: "I am delighted that we have managed to transact the conditional sale of the business, which ensures the continuity of administration of these products to some 20,000 retail investors in the business.

"Those products outside this sale will continue to be administered by Outsourced Professional Administration Limited (OPAL), which continues to support all other parts of the NDFA and DRL businesses."