LIQUIDATION BY BANK

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30830, 16 August 1965, Page 17

LIQUIDATION BY BANK

£4m. Owed To Japanese (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, Aug. 14. Difficulties in raising £4m in dealings with Japanese banks has forced the London merchant banker Sale and Company into liquidation. The liquidation announcement, which is understood to have come after talks with Japanese banks in London, referred to “the breakdown of negotiations” in which the 57-year-old firm had been engaged.

Col. George Sale, head of the company and a life-long friend of the Japanese Royal family, is also known to have had talks with a big British bank.

Beginning Col. Sale said the money involved arose from the issue of bills of acceptance (a form of credit) which had fallen due for settlement before the money to meet them was available. Most of the £4m, he said, was owed to Japanese banks. The company’s difficulties had arisen because of the credit squeeze in Britain and Japan. At one time the firm had enjoyed facilities of £lm on the discount market, but now that had all gone. “The trouble has been due to the spiralling effect of the squeeze,” Colonel Sale stated. “People who used to settle in 60 days now pay in 90 days, people who used to pay in 90 days now take 160 days, and so on.”