Collapsed stockbroker MINC Financial Services sold off

Boutique stockbroking firm MINC Financial Services has been sold after collapsing into the hands of voluntary administrators with debts believed to be as high as $8 million.

MINC and its subsidiaries, including broking arm Asanda, were placed in the hands of Atle Crowe-Maxwell and Ken Whittingham from accounting and insolvency firm PKF last Friday.

But the operations were sold to ASX-listed financial services firm MDS Financial Group yesterday for an undisclosed amount.

MDS will acquire MINC’s current national client lists, the private client business and advisors in Townsville, Bunbury, Gold Coast and Melbourne.

The acquisition does not include MINC’s debts, liabilities and infrastructure.

Atle Crowe-Maxwell from PKF told SmartCompany that the administrators were under severe time pressure to get a deal done before MINC’s clients started moving on to other firms, drastically lowering the value of the business.

“If we didn’t extract some value for creditors quickly, the value would have been nothing,” he says.

The administrators will now remain in place to investigate the reasons for the company’s collapse and try to sell the remaining assets of the business to increase returns to creditors.

The first creditors meeting will be held on Monday, May 2.

Smaller brokers are under pressure from a wave of consolidation in the financial services sector, as competition shrinks margins and volatile markets puts pressure on demand.

The deal to buy MINC is the second MDS has done in recent weeks. In late March, it acquired broker D2MK for $150,000.