Retail investors in Capital + Merchant Finance may get as little as 10 per cent of their money back, receivers KordaMentha say.

The receivers said there were "significant concerns" around whether Capital + Merchant's securitisation process had invalidated insurance on a substantial portion of its loans.

The 10 per cent recovery estimate excludes any potential returns from insurance or claims against those involved with the company.

KordaMentha is the second receiver to Capital + Merchant, as debenture investors will not be repaid until creditor Fortress Credit Corp has recovered its loans to the company.

Receivers for Fortress, Grant Thornton, have only made "modest" recoveries from C+M's loans so far, KordaMentha says.

Grant Thornton earlier this year estimated that debenture investors would recover between 14-59 percent of their investment after Fortress had been repaid.

Asked what had contributed to the decline in forecast recoveries since then, KordaMentha receiver Brendon Gibson said he could not comment on Grant Thornton's assessment.  "We felt it was important to give investors our opinion on how it might end up," he said.

When Capital + Merchant was placed in receivership, a judge commented that it appeared the company should have stopped taking public money some time earlier.