MF Global Asia sale hampered by problems unwinding trades

SINGAPORESYDNEY, Nov 11 (Reuters): MF Global's liquidators are struggling to sell the Asian business as one concern because of problems unwinding trading positions, so they may now sell the various country units separately. The provisional liquidators for the business in Hong Kong said Friday there had been a number of encouraging bids for the regional business as a whole but the exercise has proved increasingly complex and the focus is now on selling off the various Asian business units individually. "The complexities and challenges arising from the Chapter 11 filing in New York, as clients and exchanges have sought to unwind and minimise client exposures, have meant that the bidders were not able to reach the point where terms could be agreed in the time available," said Patrick Cowley, a principal at KPMG in Hong Kong. The move marks a setback for the liquidators, who last week said there were more than 50 interested parties for the Asia-Pacific business of the collapsed US brokerage, meaning they were confident they could sell the franchise as a whole. In Australia, the administrators said earlier Friday they hoped the sale of the business there would be completed by the end of next week. "The data room for the local business is open, confidentiality agreements have been signed by a number of parties. We are hoping to get indicative bids in by Wednesday and close it out by next Friday," said Chris Campbell, a partner at administrator Deloitte. Liquidators in Hong Kong and Singapore are also working to try and sell their individual units. The brokerage's clients were told by the administrator of the Australian unit that they will have to wait a while longer before they can have their money returned. A chorus of commodity traders around the world has been calling for administrators of MF Global to release billions of dollars in cash frozen after the broker filed for bankruptcy late last month following disastrous bets on euro zone debt. Deloitte's Campbell estimated they have nearly half the total funds owed to the Australian business's clients in cash, with most of the remainder tied up with counterparties. Counterparties owed MF Global Australia A$167 million ($168.7 million), or just over half the A$313 million of client funds, he said. Campbell told reporters after a meeting of more than 500 MFGA creditors in Sydney he was expecting about A$33 million ($33.3 million) from BNY Mellon next week, but the lack of responses from other counterparties had "handcuffed" him from releasing any funds to clients or creditors. Among the largest counterparties was Deutsche Bank, which held around A$48 million as a prime broker for MFGA, he added. The process would take more than three months but less than a year assuming all data was received and reconciled, he added.