KEY POINTS:
The first receiver of Capital+Merchant believes there will be "blatant" opportunities for debenture holders to take legal action against the former directors of the failed finance company.
Grant Thornton receiver Tim Downes expects to hand over the books for Capital+Merchant by the end of the year to second receiver KordaMentha.
Downes and colleague Richard Simpson were appointed in November last year by Fortress Credit Corporation which is owed $70 million and has first right to any money returned.
Fortress has been paid back $56 million and is expected to get close to the amount it is owed.
Despite Capital+Merchant having a loan book of over $182 million, its 7000 debenture investors, who are owed $162 million, are expected to get nothing from the company's loans and assets.
"We do not believe there will be any recovery for investors from loans and assets of CMF," KordaMentha receiver Brendan Gibson told investors in a letter this month.
But Downes said he believed there were serious opportunities for substantial returns to come from claims against other parties.
"To me the opportunities are very clear in terms of areas to pursue action."
Downes said there was potential for money to come from some insurance claims but the more significant opportunities would be in legal action.
That was likely to be in a joint move with the Securities Commission and the Companies Office.
Predictions on the assets had been a return of somewhere between 14c and 59c in the dollar.
Downes said if Fortress was included as a public investor the return currently sat at 24c.
