Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Greensill Capital
A London-based supply-chain finance firm founded in 2011 by Lex Greensill, a former Morgan Stanley and Citigroup banker from a Queensland farming family, that turned "reverse factoring" (paying a company's suppliers early in return for a discount) into a high-growth, technology-branded business; packaged its loans into notes sold mainly through ~$10bn of Credit Suisse funds; owned a small German bank; raised ~$1.5bn from SoftBank's Vision Fund; hired former UK prime minister David Cameron; and lent increasingly to a few related borrowers, above all Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance, sometimes against invoices that did not yet exist. When its trade-credit insurer declined to renew policies that expired on 1 March 2021, Credit Suisse froze its funds the same day, and Greensill's UK and Australian companies entered insolvency on 8 March 2021. For a US reader Greensill matters for three reasons: it shows how supply-chain finance can hide debt from a company's balance sheet (the reason the FASB now requires disclosure of supplier-finance programmes); its losses reached US borrowers and investors (Bluestone Resources, Katerra, SoftBank-backed firms and US insurers); and it is a textbook case of insurance being mistaken for a guarantee.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2011, London (parent later Greensill Capital Pty Ltd, Australia)
- Founders
- Alexander "Lex" Greensill (born 1976, Bundaberg, Queensland, reported); previously at Morgan Stanley and Citigroup in working-capital finance (reported)
- Headquarters
- London (operating company Greensill Capital (UK) Ltd); legal parent in Australia; Greensill Bank AG in Bremen, Germany; offices in New York and elsewhere (reported)
- Ownership / structure
- Private. Lex Greensill and family the largest holders; General Atlantic (~$250m, 2018, reported); SoftBank Vision Fund (~$1.5bn in 2019)
- Leadership
- Lex Greensill (founder, CEO); David Cameron (adviser from 2018); Bill Crothers (former UK government chief commercial officer, director from 2016, reported); Roland Hartley-Urquhart (vice-chairman, US-based, reported)
- Segment and clients
- Non-bank trade and supply-chain finance; investors in its notes (Credit Suisse funds, GAM, insurers, banks); corporate clients including GFG Alliance, Bluestone Resources, Katerra and other SoftBank portfolio companies, and governments (UK and Australian supplier-payment schemes)
- Scale at peak
- Reported ~$143bn of financing provided to ~10m customers in 2019 (company claim, reported); ~$10bn in Credit Suisse funds; reported valuation ~$3.5–4bn (2019)
- Profit
- Not reliably public; UK accounts showed modest profits relative to size (reported, verify)
- Failure
- Insurance lapse 1 March 2021; Credit Suisse funds frozen 1 March and put into liquidation 4 March; BaFin moratorium on Greensill Bank 3 March; insolvency filings 8 March 2021; Greensill Capital (UK) administration with liabilities over £1.6bn (Insolvency Service); Grant Thornton administrators
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding and supply-chain finance model (2011–12); Greensill Bank Bremen (2014); Credit Suisse fund partnership (2017); Cameron hire and Covid lobbying (2018–20); SoftBank Vision Fund (2019); concentration in GFG and Bluestone (2019–20); insurance lapse and collapse (2021); insolvency, litigation and aftermath (2021–26)
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2011
Founding and Supply Chain Finance Model
Founding
2014
Greensill Bank Bremen Acquisition
Acquisition
2017
Credit Suisse Funds Partnership
Partnership (distribution of originated assets)
2018
Cameron Hire and Covid Lobbying
Partnership (senior adviser hire) / controversy
2019
GFG Alliance and Bluestone Concentration
Pivot (to concentrated and future-receivables lending) / failure
2019
SoftBank Vision Fund Investment
Funding round
2021
Insolvency Litigation and Aftermath
Bankruptcy / regulatory settlement / litigation
2021
Insurance Lapse and Collapse
Failure