UK retail structured products specialist NDFA has withdrawn from the race to acquire Keydata Investment Services, the structured products provider which was placed into administration due to insolvency by the UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority, last week.

NDFA said it had approached administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers with a view to buying Keydata, but has subsequently withdrawn its interest after careful consideration of the acquisition.

“We will remain interested in all opportunities of this nature that present themselves in our drive to grow assets and to build the business, but for now our focus will remain our organic growth,” said NDFA managing director, Paul Bispham.

According to Reuters, PwC has received 30 offers of interest and hopes to complete the sale of Keydata by the end of this week.

Among the companies interested in Keydata is UK investment boutique Jubilee Financial Products. “The structured product range offered by Keydata is a good fit with the Jubilee Financial Products philosophy, and we consider ourselves to be a serious buyer for the company,” JFP chief executive Adam Habib said in a statement last week. 

When Keydata was placed into administration media reports said the insolvency would affect up to 80,000 individual investors with £700 million ($1.126 billion) of investments. An indicative purchase price for the firm has not been disclosed.

The structured products sector was rocked by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers last autumn. Lehmans manufactured many structured products and the demise of the investment bank raised concerns about whether advisors and investors were sufficiently aware of counterparty risks in such investment vehicles.