ABN Amro seeks missing collateral
• Bank queries cocoa supplier on $300m in lost assets
ABN Amro wants to know what became of more than $300m that it claims was collateral that the bankrupt US unit of cocoa supplier Transmar Group may have moved to a European affiliate.
The Dutch bank asked a federal judge in Manhattan for permission “to investigate the facts and circumstances surrounding the apparent disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars in collateral and other property” from the estate of Transmar Commodity Group, which filed for bankruptcy in New York on the last day of 2016.
ABN Amro, which is an agent for a lender group on the $400m Transmar Commodity credit facility, said in a court filing last Tuesday that about $313m in asset value vanished from the company’s books sometime after the end of October 2016.
The bank said that some of the assets may have been transferred to Transmar affiliate Euromar Commodities.
Euromar, which owns a cocoa-processing factory in Fehrbellin, Germany, began its own insolvency proceedings in the country in early December. The processor was partly felled by the UK’s decision to leave the EU, which weakened the pound and drove up prices for London cocoa futures.
ABN Amro said that so far, Transmar had not complied with requests for information, and the bank wants the US court’s permission to issue subpoenas so it can examine documents and question company officers about the fate of the assets.
Other banks lending to Transmar include Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, Natixis and Macquarie Bank.
COLLATERAL VALUE
In a separate filing, a lawyer for ABN Amro said urgency was necessary “because of the significant collateral value loss that has occurred in just the past few months, the risk that such losses will continue unabated and the failure of the debtor and its affiliates and principals to provide most of the basic information in response to the lenders’ and their advisers’ prior requests for information.”
Joseph Schwartz of Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti, an attorney for Transmar, fired back on January 18. In a letter to US Bankruptcy Judge James Garrity, he called ABN Amro’s request “burdensome” and said the bank “literally seeks to have unreasonably broad truckloads of documentation” in days.
The attorney said that Transmar has been supplying “a voluminous amount” of information already.
THE BANK WANTS THE US COURT’S PERMISSION TO ISSUE SUBPOENAS SO IT CAN QUESTION COMPANY OFFICERS
PREVENTING TRANSFERS
Schwartz said that since midDecember, the lenders had prevented Transmar from making transfers that could jeopardise their collateral.
Rather than rush the bank’s request, the lawyer said, the court should schedule a hearing to give all parties time to respond.