Ford brokers £91m Lifemark loan; claims 100% investor and FSCS return

Keydata founder Stewart Ford has put together a £91m loan facility offer for Lifemark, which, if accepted, he claims would repay the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and investors in full.

According to Ford, the proposed lender is an unnamed US bank. Its ‘in principle' offer was put to Lifemark provisional administrator, Eric Collard of KPMG Luxembourg, last week for consideration.

Details of the terms of the deal - including the cost of interest on the borrowing - have not been made public by Ford.

Ford said the loan could be in place by September, and would add liquidity to the troubled fund to allow it to continue paying premiums on its life settlement assets until maturity, and avoid a fire-sale of policies to stave off liquidation.

He claims this would bring Lifemark out of administration and allow a full return of remaining capital to investors in quarterly instalments over a 5 year period from 18 months after the first drawdown.

Forecasts provided by Ford allow for an initial payment of US$30m to bondholders upon completion of the loan.

The FSCS, as one of the principal bondholders in the fund, could also be repaid.

However Ford said repayment will "depend on both the final agreed amount of the facility and the future performance of Lifemark's portfolio of life settlement policies".

As part of the deal a new management team would takover running the fund, approved by the Luxembourg financial regulator, the CSSF and by the FSCS.

Ford said his role has been and will be limited to arranging and introducing the offer of a new loan facility to Lifemark.

"Having done so, I do not propose to have any further involvement in the funding or management of Lifemark," he said.