The liquidation of MMI Stockbrokers is likely to be a long and tortuous process, with the court-appointed liquidator, Mr Tom Kavanagh of Kavanagh Chartered Accountants, committed to recouping the money owed to MMI by the investors who availed of the stockbroking's firm's rollover arrangements.

Mr Kavanagh said yesterday that the firm's sole assets are its list of debtors, but he said that the number of debtors is "only a fraction" of the firm's 5,000 clients. Mr Kavanagh said, as an appointee of the High Court, he is obliged to chase all monies owed to MMI but added: "I don't think it will be an easy process, chasing debt is never easy at the best of times."

Most of these clients are small private investors, but a relatively small number of clients - thought to run into hundreds - were involved in the roll-over arrangement which led to MMI's financial difficulties last September and which led ultimately to the stockbroking firm being taken over by its biggest creditor, the British investment group K&H Options.

The High Court was told last week that MMI has debts of £14 million, £8 million of which is owed to K&H Options.

A number London stockbroking firms which underwrote MMI's roll-over arrangements are also thought to be owed substantial sums, but Mr Kavanagh declined to elaborate on the creditors ahead of the preparation of a statement of affairs.

Mr Kavanagh also declined to comment on the stand-by facility that was supposed to have been put in place by MMI directors as part of the K&H rescue package, but which turned out not to have been put in place when the new owners sought to draw it down.