Christianson Property Capital offers unregulated loan notes paying 10% per annum over ten years, which is compounded and paid on maturity.
Investors have a “break clause” that allows them to withdraw 50% of their investment after 5 years.
Status
Believed to be open to new investment. The “invest” section of its website states “For more information download pdf coming soon”, but an investment brochure is still available to download from its website, and we will assume the information in this brochure stands until we learn otherwise.
The investment brochure is available to download from the website without any requirement to be a high net worth or sophisticated investor or professional intermediary.
Who are Christianson Property Capital?
No information is provided on the website or in the investment literature as to who is behind the business.
Companies House shows that Manish Gambhir is the sole owner and director of Christianson Property Capital Limited.
Gambhir was previously a director of Pension Helpdesk Limited. Pension Helpdesk Limited was dissolved in February 2014, six months after the FCA warned that the company was giving investment advice without authorisation.
Christianson Property Capital was incorporated three months later in May 2014. According to its last accounts (April 2016), the company had £1.1 million in net liabilities. This mostly comprised ~£7 million in amounts owed by related companies, minus ~£8 million in liabilities represented by loan notes such as those reviewed here.
The “related companies” appear to consist of a subsidiary, Victory House Group Ltd, which in turn owns another subsidiary, Victory House 1 Ltd. Two other subsidiaries (Victory House 2 and 3) are described in the April 2016 accounts as dormant.
How secure is the investment?
These investments are unregulated corporate loans and if Christianson Property Capital defaults you risk losing up to 100% of your money.
Christianson Property Capital “focuses on the acquisition, trading and development of property in the UK”.
If Christianson fails to generate sufficient returns from its properties, there is a risk that Christianson may default on payments of interest and capital to investors.
Investors’ money is secured on the real estate assets of the company.
Before relying on this security, it is essential that investors undertake professional due diligence to ensure that in the event of a default, that these securities are valuable and liquid enough to raise sufficient money to compensate investors if needed, as well as any other creditors that Christianson has borrowed money from, and that their security over these assets is watertight.
Investors should not assume that because the loans are asset-backed, they are guaranteed to get at least some of their money back through sale of the collateral if the issuer defaults. Investors in asset-backed loans have been known to lose 100% of their money when it turned out that the collateral was insufficient to pay investors after paying the insolvency administrator (who always stands first in the queue).
We are not in any sense implying that the same will happen to investors in Christianson Property Capital, only illustrating the risk that exists with unregulated corporate loan notes even when they are asset-backed.
Christianson Property Capital’s literature states in the risk warning at the end that investors are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Should I invest with Christianson Property Capital?
This blog does not give financial advice. The following are statements of publicly available facts or widely accepted investment principles, not a personalised recommendation. Investors should consult a regulated independent financial adviser if they are in any doubt.
As with any unregulated corporate bond, this investment is only suitable for sophisticated and/or high net worth investors who have a substantial existing portfolio and are prepared to risk 100% loss of their money.
Any investment offering 10% per annum yields should be considered very high risk. As an individual security with a risk of total and permanent loss, Christianson Property Capital’s loan notes are higher risk than a diversified portfolio of stockmarket funds.
This particular bond is described as asset-backed. Before relying on the security backing the bond, investors should undertake professional due diligence to ensure that a) the security exists b) in the event of default, the security could be easily sold and would raise enough money to compensate all the investors and other borrowers, after the adminstrator deducts their fees.
Before investing investors should ask themselves:
- How would I feel if the investment defaulted, the sale of the security failed to raise enough money to compensate all investors, and I lost 100% of my money?
- Do I have a sufficiently large portfolio that the loss of 100% of my investment would not damage me financially?
- Have I conducted due diligence to ensure the asset-backed security can be relied on?
If you are looking for “security” or “assured returns”, you should not invest in unregulated products with a risk of 100% capital loss.
