Anyone with a former Bank of Scotland/Halifax HP agreement being hassled by Bluestone

[Brendan Burgess]

A journalist has asked me if I have heard of Bluestone, which I had not.

They seem to be collecting HP on behalf of Bank of Scotland/Halifax.

The journalist had been contacted by someone in arrears on a HP agreement and Bluestone seemed very aggressive and threatening.

A google search comes up with nothng apart from a false ICB issue on Boards.ie

Anyone else come across them?

 

[kennyb3]

Brendan have you heard anyone more on this? We have a client who has been quoted some pretty shocking figures for secondary rental on equipment.

 

[Redhouse]

Bank of Scotland transferred their Asset Finance Agreements to VHP Ireland Limited last June and VHP have engaged Bluestone Asset Management Ltd to manage the portfolio.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hi Redhouse

Who is VHP?

Bluestone is part owned by Bank of Scotland.

Brendan

 

[Redhouse]

Brendan, The following is from RTE web site on 18/01/2012. "A loan book originally worth hundreds of millions of euro, which was part of Bank of Scotland Ireland, has been sold to a US investment group.
The loans involved are borrowings by consumers to buy cars and lending to companies to purchase vans, lorries, plant and machinery.
The loan book has been bought by VHP Ireland Limited, which is part of US-group Varde Partners, for an undisclosed sum.
Customers have been written to and informed of the change in ownership of the loan book.
The sale is part of an on-going process by Lloyds to wind down Bank of Scotland Ireland's loans".


I wasn't aware that BoS had an interest in Bluestone. A company called Certus were managing the BOSI portfolio during the BoS windown in Ireland - is Bluestone really just Certus in another guise?

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hi Redhouse

Very interesting information. I had not seen it.



http://www.bluestoneam.ie/aboutus.html

About Bluestone

Bluestone is owned by a mix of private and institutional shareholders including Macquarie Bank, Bank of Scotland, Crescent Capital and Barclays Bank. In Europe, the firm is organised in two divisions.