Christianson Property Capital Limited has finally filed its April 2017 accounts (3 months overdue), resulting in the strike-off action against it being suspended.
The accounts are micro-entity accounts and are therefore exempt from auditing and from filing a profit and loss account, meaning there is very limited information that can be drawn from them.
Nonetheless, a few facts can be gleaned from the accounts:
- Current assets as at April 2016 have been significantly revised compared to Christianson’s previously filed accounts. The April 2016 accounts stated that the company’s current assets at that date were £6.9 million, consisting almost entirely of amounts owed by group undertakings. The April 2017 accounts however have changed this figure to £4.3 million, a significant write down. This in turn meant that 2016 net assets have been revised from minus £1.1 million to minus £3.2 million.
- Why the April 2016 figure needed to be revised is not known, nor is Christianson Property Capital obliged to provide any explanation, given its micro-entity status.
- Current assets as at April 2017 “increased” from the revised figure of £4.3 million in 2016 to £5.3 million in 2017. (Although when I describe this as an increase, it feels a bit like The Ministry of Truth announcing that the chocolate ration has been increased from 10 grammes to 20 grammes, when it was 30 grammes last month. It is still a decrease compared to the figure reported in the 2016 accounts.)
- Net assets however decreased from minus £3.2 million to minus £4.7 million. The increase in the value of current assets was more than cancelled out by an increase in creditors due after more than one year, which rose from £8 million in April 2016 to £10.5 million in April 2017. This £10.5 million is likely to predominantly represent investors in Christianson’s 10 year bonds.
(H/T to commenter Stephen for spotting the discrepancy between the 2016 and 2017 accounts in regard to April 2016 current assets.)
The first big test of Christianson Property Capital’s solvency will arise in 2019, when their earliest investors have the right to withdraw 50% of their investment after 5 years, subject to an unspecified exit fee.
