Several sources in the derivatives market last week corroborated rumours that defunct broker giant Refco's London business, which was briefly owned by Man Financial, was sold on in a management buyout backed by Marathon Asset Management for the nominal fee of one dollar.
One source close to the deal told FO Week that the accounts in London were sufficiently difficult to assess that the component businesses were virtually given away to Marathon, attached to between $30-40m in liabilities, including staff redundancy payments.
Trading professionals close to the issue told FO Week that Man had never intended to keep the...