Tan Kin Lian's Blog: UK - action taken against land banking companies

Thursday, April 01, 2010

UK - action taken against land banking companies

Comment: surely it is time for the Singapore authorities to act against similar shady practices in Singapore?

http://www.creditman.biz/uk/members/news-view.asp?newsviewID=11496

....were all involved in operating an unscrupulous land investment business. The companies falsely claimed to provide the best land and property in the UK with future development potential and the capacity to deliver maximum returns to investors including selling land they had no right to.

The grounds for winding up the companies were that they made misleading and unfounded statements in marketing the plots of land to the public; sold land on two sites (Worplesdon and Thorndon) that they had no right to sell and that over a third of company receipts were found to have gone to those involved in the running the business, namely.....

In ordering the companies into liquidation Registrar said: “This is a very serious case where considerable amounts of money have been obtained from members of the public. I am satisfied that the evidence, based on a very full report, substantiates all of the allegations. The evidence shows diversion of funds and the intermingling of funds by the companies that can’t be unravelled. I am satisfied that Mr .... and Mr ..... have demonstrated complete lack of co-operation and that this is very obviously a case where winding up orders should be made.”

The investigation also found that the companies had failed to keep proper accounting records; had failed to comply with Companies Act requirements; failed to co-operate fully with the investigation and operated with a serious lack of transparency as to who controlled the companies and with a lack of clarity regarding the structure and roles of the companies.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Mr. Tan,

I wonder which of those liquidated UK companies named in the article sold land in Singapore causing losses. Which other companies have aggrieved investors in Singapore and what's the complaints against them? I know of only Profitable Plot operating in Singapore. Their sale scheme includes legal transfer of land title to the investors for the portion they bought and setting up a trust run by a UK legal firm which is funded to work with external consultants on obtaining residential / commercial land usage approval from the UK authorities. What are other companies known to be operating in Singapore and are their sales plans similarly structured? Are they, including Profitable Plot, being similarly investigated by the UK authorities.

In summary are we to be wary of all of them to be similarly bad apples of the trade?; April 02, 2010 1:46 PM
Steve said...: Profitable Plots/Profitable Group is not a UK company. It is a Singapore based company selling UK land and other products. It is not the job of the UK authorities to investigate Singapore companies.

Profitable Plots UK closed down in 2007 following a review with the department of trade and industry - you can see a news reference here a statutory reference here and the newspaper advert announcing Profitable Plots liquidation here

Profitable Group cannot sell land plots in the UK under UK FSA regulation related to collective investment schemes. Profitable Group have stated publicly that they do not operate in the UK. This was confirmed in an interview by Profitable Group Chief Executive in 2009. You can see that here. Mr. Gaunt has since left the Profitable Group.

The MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) have put Profitable Group/ Profitable Plots on an investor alert list. This can be seen here; April 04, 2010 8:31 PM
Anonymous said...: Thanks Steve for the info update on The PG. So do you know if it's Singapore's operations and office are under investigation by the MAS? How does its sale of UK land which seems like real estate transactions on cash basis with registered transfer of title of land purchased become a financial product under the purview of MAS? unless it is involved also in our financial products? I believe it will be a disservice to existing investors if unfounded adverse info on The PG is spread on a hear-say basis which could potentially destroy the value of the purchasers' investments. Most if not all sale of The PG's UK land sale have been made and this issue is more pertinent to existing investors than to new ones. It is one thing to say that such investments carry high risks and long gestation period as they obviously are and another to suggest that such transactions are illegal or fraudulent. Hope you,Mr. Tan or anyone else can help to illuminate. One thing that is not obvious even after visiting its website as per your link is who the shareholders of the Group are and its legal corporate status.; April 04, 2010 10:57 PM
Steve said...: You should ask MAS directly what they are doing beyond adding PG to the investor alert list.

Should we protect existing investors value by propping up the value of a poor investment until they can sell it to new investors ? I dont think so.

My view is its defensible to support a poor choice if you dont know its poor and take reasonable efforts to find out. Once you know something wont work you have a moral obligation not to take advantage any further.

It is an unfortunate fact that if you own UK land banking plots your best chance to get any money back is to sell them now if you can find a buyer.

The interesting ethical dilemma is that for you to want to sell them probably means you understand that they are now worth a lot less than you paid for them.; April 05, 2010 11:19 AM