HIGH-profile Hampshire mortgage broker TML owed £1.6m to companies across the region when it collapsed, it has emerged.

A victim of the credit crunch, TML went into administration in December with the loss of about 200 jobs and owing money to 71 companies, including more than £55,000 to 11 Hampshire firms. Couriers, telecom suppliers, newsagents, taxi companies, accountants and recruitment firms are among the companies owed sums between £92 and £91,000.

At best creditors can expect to get half their money back, but it is likely to be considerably less.

A report from administrators reveals that they received more than 40 approaches for the company, one of Hampshire's best-known financial names.

Negotiations "reached an advance stage" with four unnamed companies but talks collapsed over unacceptable offers and the entire workforce was laid off just three days before Christmas. A skeleton staff remains working through its remaining business, with the company expected to finally shut later this month.

In the same way as building society Northern Rock fell victim to the financial crisis that has wiped billions from balance sheets of banks across the globe, TML is a victim of the rising cost of credit. It specialised in the financial sector worst hit by the credit crunch - sub-prime or higher-risk mortgages. TML advertising said that it "could help even if you have been turned down for credit in the past", but lenders prepared to offer money dried up.

Founded in 2000 by New Forest-based entrepreneur Andrew Strode-Gibbons and businessman Simon Kingsnorth, TML was an immediate success story, arranging more than half a billion pounds worth of loans in its first two years. Its success lured industry giant Kensington to buy it for £25m in 2002, making the pair millionaires.

As the financial markets deteriorated, TML's performance began to wane. It was bought by its management for a token sum rumoured to be just £1 in April last year.

Administrator Andrew Duncan said: "The much-publicised problem of the credit crunch means it's a sector not many people think is sexy any more. Lenders are fleeing from it.

"The offers we received were not acceptable. Unfortunately we had to make a large number of redundancies.

"Those that are left are looking at the options as regards the large number of mortgages we've got in the system and to process them. Then we realise the assets of the business.

"There will be a shortfall to creditors and it will be significant."

Gareth Lewis