Greensill’s administrator files four more court claims against insurer IAG

A series of claims has emerged against IAG, filed by Greensill administrator Grant Thornton.

Greensill Capital founder and chief Lex Greensill, in the foreground, gives evidence to a UK parliamentary committee via a live steam. Picture: Bloomberg

The latest barrage of court claims from collapsed trade credit lender Greensill Capital have landed at the foot of Insurance Australia Group, but the listed insurer is confident its investors won’t wear any unexpected bills.

Four court filings fired lodged with the Federal Court on February 28 — but just released due to changes to document access rules — show Greensill’s administrators at Grant Thornton are still pursuing IAG over subsidiary Bond & Credit Co’s role in writing cover for the failed lender’s invoice financing business.

IAG, which previously owned half of trade credit specialist BCC, is already facing court actions in Australia related to Greensill, which was founded by Lex Greensill.

The latest court filings show Greensill Capital’s administrators are chasing IAG over contracts involving the sprawling British energy resources operator SIMEC Group in a $US17.59m ($26m) claim.

Greensill is alleged to have financing cover for SIMEC in 2015 under a rolling settlement and

re-invoicing service.

However, the court documents show SIMEC failed to pay invoices by July 2021, in the months following the collapse of Greensill.

Greensill administrator Grant Thornton claims it sought to force SIMEC to pay the debts – serving the firm’s Hong Kong office with statutory demands but the company refused to pay.

Another of the cases involves Bluestone, the coal and energy division of alternative asset manager Blackstone in a $US160m claim, less any amount already received by Greensill Bank.

In June 2022, Blackstone and Bluestone signed a deal with Greensill’s administrators “to make certain payments to the noteholders”.

However, BCC claims it was not informed the deal was made nor gave permission for the administrator to sign a payments plan with Blackstone.

Greensill’s administrators are also seeking to hit IAG with claims over a deal signed with Liberty Commodities Group in 2018.

Liberty allegedly jointly guaranteed with Greensill it would indemnify the firm for failure by the seller to pay up, in a deal insured by IAG.

But Greensill’s administrators claim either the customers have failed to pay it, or Liberty has withheld passing on the funds for 19 separate deals.

The administrators claim Greensill lost $US121.33m and €9.25m on the deal.

The case has also caught up Atlantic 57, which drew down on a $US40m debt facility funded by Greensill to purchase an equity stake in the redevelopment of the Steinway building in New York, with the deal again insured by IAG.

Atlantic failed to pay the funds and failed to respond to attempts by administrators to force it to pay the debts, triggering the $US40m claim against IAG.

These latest claims come as IAG deals with eight court claims lodged against it by US private lender White Oak Global Advisors, Greensill’s administrators, and Credit Suisse.

However, IAG said it was confident its shareholder would not face any surprise losses for the Greensill exposure, noting in its most recent results a $471m outstanding claims liability.

“As previously advised, IAG maintains that, through the protections it has put in place, it has no net insurance exposure to trade credit policies sold through BCC,” the insurer said.