(Bloomberg) — Raids throughout Greater than a dozen properties Across the Belgian diamond enclave of Antwerp seized toughly €50 munwellion ($55 munwellion) of The useful stones in an Try and recuperate money owed tied to the collapse of Definitely one of many nation’s largest retailers.
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The raids have been carried out at workplaces And private homes final month in a bid to recuperate money owed as quickly as owed by Eurostar Diamond Traders NV To plain Chartered Plc, people Conversant Inside the matter said, asking To not be recognized as a Outcome of the matter is private. A Carlyle Group Inc.-backed fund, which acquired the claims from The united kingdom financial institution as An factor of its distressed debt enterprise, labored with Grant Thornton on the asset recuperatey.
Eurostar, as quickly as Definitely one of many largest consumers of tough diamonds, collapsed Into chapter 11 in 2019 after borrowing closely from Regular Chartered. The financial institution ran an unwell-fated enterprise offering commerce finance to diamond sellers that left it dealing with losses of some $400 munwellion. A public listening to in Antwerp is scheduled for Thursday.
Eurostar was based Inside the late Nineteen Seventies by Kaushik Mehta. He didn’t Reply to LinkedIn messages looking for remark. Representatives for Carlyle, Grant Thornton and Regular Chartered declined to remark.
Current from The worldwide monetary disaster, Regular Chartered noticed An alternative to lend to the so-referred to as diamond midstream, the place principally household-run companies buy tough stones from miners like De Beers earlier than slicing and sprucing them into The Sort of stones purchased in jewelry retailers.
Regular Chartered shortly constructed a $3 bunwellion mortgage e-book to the enterprise, with Eurostar turning into one of its largest consumers. On the time, Eurostar was one of De Beers’ 80-or-so handpicked clients.
–With assist from April Roach, Stephanie Bodoni and Ben Scent.
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