The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) recovered last week $34 million of client funds of MF Global Australia, paving the way for the partial return of their money earlier than expected.

The shuttered trading firm owed a total of $313 million as of Nov. 1. Administrators earlier located half of the amount while the other half are held by MF Global Australia's counterparties such as Deutsche Bank, which has $48 million of client funds outstanding.

The ASX is also negotiating for recovery of funds with the Bank of New York Mellon.

On Friday, the administrator of MF Global Australia failed to find a buyer for the company, which led to the declaration of 83 employees redundant. A small number of key employees were retained to help process and reconcile client positions and company files.

Deloitte, the administrator, said since it received no viable offers, the business would be wound down over the coming months.

"The situation they have found themselves in appears to have been due to the overseas position," Deloitte Corporate Reorganisation Group Partner Chris Campbell said in a statement.

The company's parent firm, MF Global, filed for bankruptcy protection in October after it reported a $198-million loss. The losses were due to bets made by Chief Executive Jon Corzine totaling $6.3 billion on European bonds.

Following these developments, MF Global laid off more than 1,000 employees of its broker-dealer unit. Mr Campbell added that he expects the sale of MF Global's Asian business to encounter difficulties similar to the Australian business.

The Asian business used to generate 14.4 per cent of MF Global's total revenue and it initially drew more than 50 bidders. But because of the increasingly complex deal involved, provisional liquidators are instead focused on selling units separately.

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