Heron Global Partners acting as broker for Diamond Construction and Renewables

Options
Stuart_Kemp
Stuart_Kemp Posts: 1 Newbie
in Savings & investments
We have been contacted by the above with a view of investing in renewables i.e. wind farms.
The interest rate they are quoting is very competitive. Has anyone heard of them or had dealings with them?
Thanks
Stuart Kemp
«1345

Comments

  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 116,371 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Combo Breaker
    Options
    Genuine regulated financial services companies do not cold call. They are not a genuine regulated financial services company.

    You cannot compare what they are offering to savings accounts paying interest. 100% loss potential with no FSCS protection being sold by an unregulated company.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • sarahemmm
    sarahemmm Posts: 116 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Options
    I have just found out that this is the true name of a company apparently called Alternative Investing (https://www.alternative-investing.uk) which advertised in The Guardian today. I thought the website was dodgy, but I filled in the form and got an email reply from a Phil Walker:
    Hello Sarah XXXX,

    Thank you for your investment enquiry with our partner Alternative Investing.

    We will contact you as soon as we can to discuss how we can help you with your investment needs.

    If you would like to speak to us immeadiately, please call 0208 003 0694.

    We look forward to speaking with you.

    Regards,

    Phil Walker

    Head of Customer Services
    Heron Global Partners Ltd.
    150 Minories, City of London, United Kingdom, EC3N 1LS
    I will be very interested in their take on why they have a) several company names, b) don't display the true name on the website, c) seem to offer different rates of return depending on which section of the website you are on.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 116,371 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Combo Breaker
    Options
    If you look at the most common scams that are currently taking place, they utilise multiple companies. By creating extra hops they can all dney liability and make it harder for investigators. Often in the chain there is a company that is based overseas just to make it more complicated.
    We will contact you as soon as we can to discuss how we can help you with your investment needs.

    Which they are not authorised or regulated to do in the UK. They use unregulated areas. Most of which are totally unsuitable for the average UK consumer.

    Again, if you look at the scams or investment failures that are going on, they are virtually all unregulated. And that is for good reason. If you wanted to peddle dodgy things, you would not become regulated. This is not to say all unregulated areas are bad. However, there are a number of things to look out for
    1 - use of only unregulated investments and the promotor/seller is also unregulated (that means no controls or consumer protection exists at any stage)
    2 - use of multiple companies in the process.
    3 - New company recently set up
    4 - directors have track record of very many companies. Even more on guard if those companies have short lives (i.e. set up, short period of scamming and shut down again before anyone takes an interest and then phoenix under a new name and repeat.
    5 - Operates under a virtual office (which for reference this company do). Whilst there are plenty of genuine companies that use virtual offices, it is frequently the case with scams and dodgy arrangements as it hides their real location. It is usually used to make them sound more impressive than they are. e.g. a student operating out of a top floor flat in Southend could have a posh address in London if they used a virtual office.

    The above is a guide for caution. It is possible that all those things could occur and the company be genuine and fair. A lot of genuine companies will also use one or more of those things. They are just risk warnings for what the scam/dodgy things usually do and to put you on guard. The more that apply, the more on guard you should be.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • sarahemmm
    sarahemmm Posts: 116 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Options
    150 Minories is a serviced office:

    https://www.beoffices.com/servicedoffice-locations/london-city/minories
  • sarahemmm
    sarahemmm Posts: 116 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    edited 25 August 2016 at 12:48PM
    Options
    Malthusian wrote: »
    By filling in your details you are now on a suckers list and will be getting a lot more calls like these.

    I'm sure you are right. However, it has allowed me to inform others, and hopefully fewer people will be taken in if they do a fairly small amount of googling.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 116,371 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Combo Breaker
    Options
    sarahemmm wrote: »
    150 Minories is a serviced office:

    https://www.beoffices.com/servicedoffice-locations/london-city/minories

    It is also a virtual office:
    https://www.beoffices.com/our-products/virtual-offices/virtual-office-locations/london-city
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 17,619 Forumite
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    Options
    An update on this one. I saw an ad on an online newspaper offering returns up to 9% so clicked to find out more. Despite several pages and details of very impressive promised returns it was only in the very small print after lots of scrolling that the disclaimer appeared that it was for high net worth individuals only.
    Very concerning that this can be hidden so far away from the return and isn't the first thing that has to be shown on the website
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 17,619 Forumite
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    Options
    This was the ad page that popped up on my PC. For somerthing that is aimed at high net worth investors and not at retail investors it seems rather odd that it mentions "low entry level" and worryingly no mention of risks in the bullet points.
    blog-investment-scam.JPG
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • bowlhead99
    bowlhead99 Posts: 12,295 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary Post of the Month
    Options
    Nothing wrong with that. It says "Why an alternative investment" and gives some reasons why you might want an alternative investment. It is clearly not a list of Why NOT an alternative investment. The bullet points suit the headline. :D

    If you click to learn more, you can learn other useful things, like why you might not want an alternative investment (which in your case, you already know)...

    Investments of all risk categories can have low entry levels. As a sophisticated investor I might still want something I can throw a few thousand into, rather than for example a private hedge fund with minimum subscription of £250k. The fact that you can put small amounts of money into it does not automatically mean you should buy it if you only have small amounts of money.
  • Tonyclarke
    Tonyclarke Posts: 4 Newbie
    edited 24 October 2017 at 8:32PM
    Options
    Heron Global put me in touch with Diamond Group who wanted to raise £3 million in a mini bond offering paying 8%+ per annum through a subsidiary company named Diamond Construction and Renewables. The money was to be used to acquire 3 sites in Scotland to build wind farms on each. The first coupon date was 6.06.16 and this payment was met. The second coupon date was 6.01.2017 and this date was not met. The Directors of the Diamond Group, ***Names removed by forum team***, went missing and did not respond on any of their contact numbers or addresses. I did some research and found that one of the wind farm sites - Dare Duff Hill in Ayrshire- they promised to acquire with the £3million had been rejected for planning consent 3 months before they launched the mini bond offer. In other words, they knew they could not build a wind farm on this site but still went ahead with the mini bond offer, using the services of Heron Global. Other equally puzzling discrepancies between the Prospectus and actions on the ground have come to light. During January and February 2017, Diamond have been subject to a series of Freezing Orders from their bank, and legal actions from investors, seeking either their overdue coupon payments, or the return of their investment. Heron have tried to distance themselves from the matter. Legal proceedings are ongoing.
This discussion has been closed.
★ ★ ★ Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 343.2K Banking & Borrowing
  • 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.7K Spending & Discounts
  • 235.3K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 608K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 173.1K Life & Family
  • 247.9K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards