Allco Financial Group was a fully integrated global financial services business, listed on the

Australian Stock Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as, ...

and headquartered in Sydney. Major services provided were structured asset finance, funds management and debt and equity funding. At one stage before liquidation, Allco had over A$4.3 billion in assets, and had financed over A$60 billion of transactions. In its most visible public transaction Allco was a part of

Airline Partners Australia Airline Partners Australia (APA) is a consortium that made a A$5.45 per share takeover offer for Australian airline Qantas in December 2006. The takeover offer received the endorsement of the Qantas board in the absence of a better offer, however ...

, the consortium that unsuccessfully attempted to buy

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founded ...

. The company is now in liquidation, after previously being in

administrative receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

, following difficulties in refinancing debt and a share price fall of 99% since the beginning of the

subprime mortgage crisis The United States subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 that contributed to the Financial crisis of 2007–2008, 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It was triggered by a large decline ...

History

Allco Financial Group was founded in 1979 by David Coe, a former partner of Sydney law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques to originate and arrange structured finance transactions for aircraft, ships and rolling stock. Over the years, Allco grew to provide funding for other services, including infrastructure and commercial finance. Allco operated globally and employed over 500 people. Allco listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2006 after merging with Record Investments, which was set up by Allco as its listed investment vehicle in 2001. At the time of listing, the merged entity was valued at A$3billion. Mr Tim Dodd, previously CFO of the BT Financial Group was appointed as chief financial officer in 2006 and former Westpac senior executive David Clarke as the new CEO. Ray Fleming took over the CFO role in June 2008 after Tim Dodd's departure. In December 2006, Allco, along with several other firms, formed the Airline Partners Australia consortium as a bidding vehicle to Qantas although the deal failed in May 2007. In December 2007 Allco led the acquisition by Australian investors of a series of power plants in the U.S. Northeast from

Consolidated Edison Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 b ...

, owner of New York City's electric utility, for US$1.48 billion.

Sub-prime crisis

Fallout from the

caused major problems for the company, prompting investor concerns about rising debt levels and causing Allco to refocus its operating model to within business sectors it knew well. Chairman David Coe and two other directors, Gordon Fell and David Turnbull, resigned from the board in March 2008. Banks seized 14% of the company's shares after it defaulted on margin loans. The company went into voluntary administration on 4 November 2008, at the request of its directors. Major news agencies ran the details of the first major victim of the credit crisis in tandem with the fall of

ABC Learning ABC Learning was an Australian company that was once the world's largest provider of early childhood education services. It was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with its market capitalisation reaching A$2.5 billion in March 2006. Th ...

the following day. David Coe died of a suspected heart attack in Aspen, Colorado, US, 21 January 2013.abc radio 702

Investment areas

Allco invested in many different offerings, mainly in the

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

and transport areas: * Aviation – Allco owned or managed 54 commercial jet aircraft, with another 40 on order. Most were on lease to carriers such as Qantas * Shipping – Allco owned or managed 38 shipping vessels with another 23 on order * Rail – Allco owned over 3100 railcars and 29 locomotives * Infrastructure – Ownership of various facilities, including power generation (including wind), waste water treatment, pipelines, port facilities and energy distribution facilities * Property – Ownership of over 117 major properties in 8 countries

References

External links

Airline Partners Australia website
{{2008 economic crisis Financial services companies established in 1979 Financial services companies disestablished in 2008 Defunct financial services companies of Australia Australian companies established in 1979 Australian companies disestablished in 2008