Sesame has 28% NDFA stake
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Sesame owns a 28.5 per cent stake in collapsed structured product providers NDFA and its sister company Defined Returns Limited.
The network insists it will not suffer any financial detriment following the administration of both companies but adds it is waiting for the administrator’s findings before taking any action.
Money Marketing revealed last Tuesday that NDFA was on the brink of administration and last Wednesday Grant Thornton was appointed administrator for both companies. They have a total of 35,000 clients and around 10 per cent of these have invested in Lehman Brothers-backed structured products.
A Sesame spokesman says the firm inherited the shareholding when Misys bought DBS in 2001. Misys IFA Services was rebranded Sesame in 2003. He says: “This is a passive investment and Sesame has no seat on the companies’ boards and no active involvement in strategic or business decisions. There is no shareholder agreement and we are comfortable that the decision to place NDFA and DRL into administration will have no detrimental financial impact on Sesame. We await the outcome of the administrator’s findings to see what happens next.”
Bloomsbury Financial Planning partner Jason Butler says: “I doubt Sesame will suffer any immediate financial detriment but the biggest fallout will be reputational damage.”
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