Buy2LetCars increases to £25 million in funds; company hits road with misleading adverts

October 24, 2019October 23, 2019 ~ Brev ~ 1 Comment

Buy2LetCars has released its accounts for December 2018.

The figures for Raedex Consortium Limited, the group holding company, show limited information as the company used small company exemptions and did not release a profit and loss statement, or have the accounts audited.

The figures are however clear that the overall company remains loss-making, with the profit and loss account falling from minus £9.3m to minus £14.1m. Net assets decreased from an already negative £2.3 million to minus £9.5 million.

High Street Group attempts total shutdown of Bond Review (oh, and it’s late filing accounts again)

October 23, 2019October 21, 2019 ~ Brev ~ 4 Comments

A few weeks ago The High Street Group became the ninth company to launch a legal complaint against Bond Review.

This complaint was not directed at me. Indeed I've received nothing from The High Street Group directly.

Instead it was directed at WordPress which provides third-party web design services to Bond Review.

WordPress passed the complaint to me and told me that they would be taking no further action.

Normally when this happens I don't waste time dwelling on it. Going public about a legal complaint risks escalating it and I have better things to do. I leave it to the complainant to decide whether they want to see me in court, which so far none of them have.

Here I'm making an exception because The High Street Group has attempted to have Bond Review completely shut down on the basis of me being a "repeat infringer".

Krono Partners administrators file update: still no dividends from Company X

October 22, 2019October 16, 2019 ~ Brev ~ 2 Comments

The administrators of Krono Partners have filed their latest update, a month after the first anniversary of Krono's administration.

Krono Partners launched in 2013 and offered unregulated seven-year bonds paying interest of 8% per year, supposedly from investing in distressed real estate in the United States and Europe. It then offered another series of bonds which would supposedly be used to invest in SME bridging loans.

The company went into administration in March 2018, supposedly as a result of bank accounts operated by Jade State Wealth being frozen.

This, it has since become clear, was only the tip of Krono's problems. Krono holds neither distressed real estate nor bridging loans. Instead over three quarters of its assets (according to the Statement of Affairs) consist of an investment registered in the Cayman Islands known as "Company X" which raises corporate finance via Exchange Traded Notes.

Throughout the period of administration, none of Krono's investments have paid any returns which could have been used to pay investors' returns of 8-10% per year, even if it hadn't gone into administration.

Park First investors push back against proposal to “wipe off £115m of debt”

October 17, 2019October 17, 2019 ~ Brev ~ 7 Comments

A meeting of victims in the collapsed Park First investment scheme to approve the administrators' proposals has been adjourned to 25 November, after a proposal to appoint alternative administrators was not included on the agenda.

Smith & Williamson (also administering Reyker Securities and London Capital and Finance) were the choice of Park First's directors.

US-based Safe or Scam LLP has proposed an alternative administrator, Quantuma LLP (currently attempting to gain control of collapsed care home investment scheme Carlauren Group).

Safe or Scam characterise Smith & Williamson's proposals as amounting to the write off of £115m of debt owed by Park First group companies to the companies in administration.

We review Fluid ISA’s IFISA bonds paying 6% per year

October 15, 2019October 4, 2019 ~ Brev ~ Leave a comment

Fluid is offering IFISA and unregulated bonds paying 6% per year for a three year term.

Funds raised are to be used to invest in short-term bridging loans.

Continue reading for a review of Fluid's IFISA bonds.

Company providing ISA wrappers to unregulated bonds collapses; LCF administrator appointed

October 14, 2019October 13, 2019 ~ Brev ~ Leave a comment

Asset manager Reyker Securities has been placed into special administration.

Reyker was mostly known as a stockbroker and Discretionary Fund Manager, but part of its business involved approving promotional literature and providing an ISA wrapper to two investments reviewed here: Blueprint Bond and Astute Capital.

Both Blueprint and Astute Capital remain in business and should in theory be largely unaffected by Reyker's collapse, as the ISA status of investors' funds should remain valid despite the administration.

Providence and Secured Energy investors compensated in full

October 10, 2019October 4, 2019 ~ Brev ~ 2 Comments

Last month it was revealed that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme has compensated investors in Providence Bonds and Secured Energy Bonds in full (up to £50,000), paying out a total of £10 million (£5 million for each).

Providence and Secured Energy Bonds paid interest of 8.25% and 6.5% per year. Both collapsed with total losses to investors.