debtmatters sold!!

kevsadie82

hi my boyfriend has had an iva with debtmatters for about a year and we were doing just fine with it, but now they have been taken over by grant thorndon and they have phoned him and said they dont do ivas-then the other day they sent a letter saying that they were meeting up with his creditors to come to a new agreement, can they do that?and would this be better for us? his credit rating will still suck wont it? and he'll have to pay it all back where as the iva some got written off.any ideas?!?

fermi

I don't think they have been taken over by Grant Thornton. If the article below is to be believed then Debtmetters have just sold off all their IVA cases.

See: Debtmatters exits IVA market

Debtmatters exits IVA market - 13/02/2008

Troubled individual arrangement (IVA) provider Debtmatters is to sell off its IVA business and rebrand as a loans company.

Debtmatters has struggled to make a profit in the increasingly squeezed IVA market and commentators say it did not have the resources to manage the portfolio. It is selling the IVA book for £6.4m to a consortium comprising Grant Thornton and Totemic.

This includes around 8,000 IVAs to be split between the two buyers so they have equal portfolios.

The residual Debtmatters business will be sold to Creditflex Group for £800,000 and its will change its name to Loanmakers Group. The profitable loan broking part of the business was acquired in June 2006 and has recently secured £3.5m of banking facilities.

The cash raised from the disposals will be used to significantly reduce the company’s borrowings.

Ges Ratcliffe, Debtmatters chief executive, said: "It was becoming increasingly difficult to operate a successful direct marketing IVA business with acceptable profit margins in the face of increasing costs of case acquisition and reduced fee levels in tandem with ongoing sector uncertainty.

"As a result of a detailed review, the Board has concluded that the best long term strategy would be to exit the IVA sector completely and focus on Loanmakers."

Mark Allen, partner at Grant Thornton, told Credit Today the deal is a "rescue on behalf of creditors to maximise their returns". Many of the large lenders are clients of Grant Thornton, and it is thought there would have been high breakage rates in the portfolio unless the IVAs were taken on by another firm.

The deal is subject to shareholder agreement and the court transferring the cases to the IPs at Grant Thornton and Totemic.

kevsadie82

thanks thats helpful,but where does it leave us personally? we didnt really want it all dug up again-surely its now gonna cost us more and take longer to pay them all off-we were payong £250 a month to dm we cant afford anymore!! and what about his credit rating? its not just going to spring back is it?

fermi

I think that getting a new agreement may just be a formality. After all, an IVA is periodically revised anyway.

If you stay in the IVA then I think things should go on pretty much as before. Anything remaining owed at the end of the IVA would be written off, and if it continues then his credit rating won't be any worse for it (although not good).

I know more about the bankruptcy side, so others can probably help.

There is also a forum with a good section on IVAs HERE.