‘He’s cornered the market!’ that’s the view from professional colleagues of Neville Kahn, the Deloitte receiver lauded as being the saviour of a raft of structure investment vehicles that went into administration or encountered turbulence as a result of the credit crisis.

Last week, the news emerged that Kahn, in partnership with Goldman Sachs, had found a way of restructuring the $7bn (£3.5bn) Cheyne Finance SIV in a move that was heralded as a method that could be used across other vehicles.

The national papers wrote the story up as beginning a new stage in the credit crisis and it looked very much like creditors were set to begin receiving some of their money back.

As for Kahn, he accepted that he may well have ‘cornered the market’ and that the deal would prove a model for others SIVs, including the other three still on the books of Deloitte as receiver.

‘The thing is that the market has been seeking clarity about SIVs and in this deal there is a structure that really works,’ he said.

SIVs do business via borrowing money by issuing short-term securities at low interest, and then lending that money by buying long-term securities at higher interest. They make a profit for investors from the difference between the two interest rates. SIVs hit the skids as the credit crunch bit by failing to attract fresh investment because of fears about the underlying assets held by the vehicle.

But is this a lucrative new line for business recovery experts? Certainly for Kahn the coverage generated by the Cheyne deal will mean he will attract new work.

‘What it gets is fantastic profile,’ says one industry observer. ‘And what that does is pull in work providing advice about SIVs that are potentially damaged or impaired.’
And given that many believe Kahn could charge up to £600 per hour, and used specialists from across disciplines within Deloitte, the eventual fees could amount to hundreds of thousands of pounds or, as some fellow business recovery experts believe, perhaps as much as a million.

Are there opportunities for other players, though? Observers believe many SIVs have Big Four only clauses in their constitutions, which means restricted opportunities.
However, some SIV work is being picked up elsewhere. Begbies has taken on the administration of Carlyle Capital Corporation, said to hold $22bn worth of assets. That should place the firm in a position to bid for advisory work too.