Ford bid to stop Lifemark sales rejected

11 August 2011 | By Natalie Holt

A Luxemburg court has refused an application brought by Keydata founder Stewart Ford which aimed to prevent the sale of Lifemark policies that were acquired through the family trust vehicle Billericay Trading.

In June 2009, Billericay provided a £10.5m loan to Lifemark which was used to buy 28 life insurance policies.

Lifemark and its provis-ional administrator Eric Collard, of KPMG Luxemburg, were served with two summons brought by Ford in April. The first summons was for an interim judgment preventing Lifemark from selling any of the Lifemark portfolio acq-uired with the Billericay loan.

Preliminary hearings took place in May, June and July, with pleadings on July 18.

It was turned down by the Luxemburg City district court on July 25.

A notice to Lifemark bondholders, published last week, says: “In this order, the court, among others, rejected Bill-ericay’s claim on all legal grounds put forward and ordered Billericay to pay a procedural indemnity of €700 to Lifemark. This order may be subject to appeal.”

The second summons calls for Lifemark to repay the £10.5m loan to Billericay, plus interest due since February. A hearing on this summons will take place on October 4.

Ford says: “Billericay sought an interim order to prevent Lifemark’s provisional administrator from disposing of the life settlement policies that were acquired with the Billericay loan and which underpin the loan agreement.

“I understand that the int-erim order which was sought on a summary basis is open to appeal and this is no doubt an option that will be considered by Billericay and its lawyers.”

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