London Capital and Finance

bail-in

https://www.director.co.uk/how-to-launch-a-mini-bond-business-funding-4585/

An article about {text removed by MSE Forum Team} MRM re ins and outs of mini-bonds. He has been behind the launch of some of the more successful mini-bonds. Although not the London Capital and Finance Investment Bond

bail-in

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/feb/03/mini-bonds-city-high-return-risk-fca

Article from the Telegraph on high risk mini-bonds

bail-in

The link http://opiscapital.co.uk/products/ is to an alternative investments introducer, Opis Capital, for the new tranche of mini-bond offerings from LC&F to FCA approved investors and IFAs. However, LC&F is still advertising direct to the public in best buy tables. The previous mini-bond offerings are closed being fully subscribed.

There is a recent commercial due diligence pdf document re the LC&F company on the website. The download document title link is below for qualified advisers and FCA approved investors.

LCFDueDiligenceQuestionnaireVersion1.1 - December2017
http://opiscapital.co.uk/content/uploads/2018/01/DDQ.pdf
London Capital and Finance Investment Bond

The document contains basic due diligence not comprehensive details. There is no info on the identification of SME company borrowers, the very disclosure that customers have repeatedly asked for to help confirm the existence of the high risk commercial lending to SMEs business.

It appears to be difficult in terms of manpower to operate a commercial loan business of this nature with a CEO and only two employees both of which appear to be primarily involved in customer contact office operations rather than the commercial lending. Other LC&F company directors named at Companies House appear to be coming and going. (See the current company structure in the flow chart in the above due diligence document above.)

When asked, neither of the two staff appear to know or want to disclose anything about the commercial lending business, not even the employees of the lending team or where they are based.

As do the bond investment team Surge Financial Ltd, the LC&F head office staff say they cannot disclose information on the SME borrowers because of data protection rules. However, this is incorrect as confirmed by the ICO. The DPR in the Data Protection Act 1998 do not apply to the commercial lending business here as it is B2B, business to business and only company info, not personal data, is being requested re commercial due diligence.

Re due diligence investors may not be able to rely on audited accounts to show the health of a company. Financial history shows companies can collapse even though recent audited accounts give a clean bill of financial health. Makes you wonder to what degree the company client accounts are audited with respect to due diligence re financial, legal and commercial due diligence. Of course, non contracted outsiders cannot get access to the company accountant to check what due diligence they carried out re a specific client.

Reaper

Another lengthy and rather unfocused post. When non-expert posters ask whether an investment is a good idea or not they really just want a Yes/No answer with a few bullet points to back up your opinion.

To give another example when you switch on the TV to watch the weather the presenter could tell you about the Adiabatic Lapse Rate, the types of clouds associated with an advancing front, and micro meteorology landscape factors providing local variations. But actually all you want to know is whether it's going to rain or not.

Providing lots of info on how much due diligence has or has not been done confuses rather than assists prospective investors.

I don't dispute anything you have written (though to be honest I only skim read it as most will) but as I said previously, "Less is More".

eskbanker

Reaper wrote: »

Another lengthy and rather unfocused post. When non-expert posters ask whether an investment is a good idea or not they really just want a Yes/No answer with a few bullet points to back up your opinion.

To be fair, any non-expert posters opening this thread at the beginning will (or should) get the message loudly and clearly that the short answer is 'no'! Of course, many non-expert posters simply start a new thread without searching first, and are swiftly given a clear message and/or pointed to this thread, so the chances of such folk wading through 200+ posts (regardless of length) on this thread are pretty minimal anyway, I'd have thought.

Without knowing bail-in's motivation or target audience for the series of verbose posts, they just come across as trying to show off and appear clever, although I suspect there's merit in some of the recent posts suggesting reading between the lines, for those able and willing to put in the time and effort involved in ploughing through them!

bail-in

I note other longterm posters here post lengthy posts and I may have to refer to a financial dictionary. Finance can be very complicated and sometimes being too simplistic can result in errors.

The above post on LC&F commercial due diligence is not lengthy and it is focused on the subject it deals with. Few here may have gone into the depths of investigation I have into specific alternative finance and investments and as you say many are looking for more simple and short answers.

However, that is not a reason to exclude other more in depth info. If someone actually is considering investing in LC&F, such info detail saves them time and like me they may not get answers to their questions from LC&F or other issuers. I have found it useful in my decision not to invest in LC&F and other similar startup and under capitalised high risk investments.

The more detail you have and the more on the fence you are, the easier it is to decide whether or not to invest. I have had advisers suggest an investment and I acted on that but it has been at its peak. My personal investing history shows I fair much better by doing my own research. Amateurs often have more time to do so and they are more vigilant as it is their money at risk.

I originally came on the London Capital and Finance Investment Bond thread to find out more about it and similar high risk investments. But much of the info posted I could get from their websites. That is one reason why I decided to do my own research and share results here. It is not a concern whether members read it or not. However, it is good to have the option to do so.

robatwork

This is the thread that just keeps on not-giving.

Plus

bail-in, have you thought about writing your pieces up as a blog?

It seems that you're getting the worst of both worlds here: posters who generally aren't interested in reading essays on the inner workings - either newbies who don't understand them, or regulars who already made up their mind (based on their own assessment). Also your comments are scattered haphazardly across various threads as is the nature of the chronological format.

If you had a blog you could organise your text better (removing duplication). It might also get picked up by Google and be more conspicuous to people who are interested in due diligence on this company.

Just a thought.

bail-in

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/73985005#Comment_73985005

The director of Global Security Trustees Ltd, Tunbridge Wells, (text removed by MSE Forum Team), a non-practising solicitor and corporate trustee for London Capital and Finance (LCF), has been suspended for a year. (Note: LCF business has been suspended since 13 December 2018 due to misadvertising and an investigation by the FCA.)

An article recently appeared 27 February 2018 (text removed by MSE Forum Team) entitled: Tribunal rejects solicitor's agreement with SRA to strike him off over dubious investment schemes.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/tribunal-rejects-solicitors-agreement-sra-strike-off-dubious-investment-schemes

A solicitor, (text removed by MSE Forum Team), who agreed with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) that he would be struck off for his role in a dubious investment scheme in 2010 (Celestial Green Investments, director of promoter Natural Capital Wealth {text removed by MSE Forum Team} now working for London Capital and Finance, {text removed by MSE Forum Team} involving carbon credits has instead ended up being suspended for a year as of 14th February 2018 after the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) decided that the sanction was not justified. However, having seen the shared directorships and working relationships and read an article about the collapse of Celestial Green Investments in 2016, it can be seen why the SRA was pushing for removal from the solicitors roll.

https://redd-monitor.org/2016/03/31/irish-tax-office-moves-to-shut-down-celestial-green-ventures/

The solicitor, now retired from Buss Murton Law LLP, Tunbridge Wells, where he was a managing partner and consultant, was at startup the sole director and corporate trustee for the London Capital and Finance corporate trust, although it, Global Security Trustees Ltd, 75% owned by Oracle Ltd, {text removed by MSE Forum Team} (CEO LCF), is a dormant company. {text removed by MSE Forum Team}, suspended for one year, is related to (text removed by MSE Forum Team) the CEO of London Capital and Finance, Tunbridge Wells, through legal work, previous directorships, e.g. Lakeview Country Club, and recommendations on LinkedIn.

http://www.bizdb.co.uk/company/global-business-security-limited-09846126/

There is a close working relationship over the years between Buss Murton and London Capital and Finance CEO {text removed by MSE Forum Team}, and related directors, as in Lakeview Country Club Ltd where Thomson was the CEO and Buss Murton (Nominees) Ltd the sole owner of the property. At one point in the early months of LC&F, the financial team gave the four offices of Buss Murton, Cranbrook etc, as the offices of LC&F. Again, although {text removed by MSE Forum Team}, now retired was the sole director of the LC&F corporate trust start-up company Global Security Trustees (GST), in the early months of the mini-bond launch the LC&F website stated, now removed, GST was a 300-year-old company, although in reality merely and misleadingly attempting to associate the start-up GST with the over 300-year-old Buss Murton Law business (1713).

Mr {text removed by MSE Forum Team}, also a solicitor at Buss Murton Law, Tunbridge Wells, Tel 01892 510 222, is the incumbent director of the dormant company Global Security Trustees. As the bond trustee he will have many fiduciary duties to the bondholders as beneficiaries under the bond trust and the secured charge on commercial loans borrowers' assets. For more info on Mr {text removed by MSE Forum Team} visit the following corporate info sites:

{text removed by MSE Forum Team}

{text removed by MSE Forum Team}

dunstonh

And in more news..... NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

It is still a high risk, unregulated, with the potential of 100% loss of capital direct investment that has no FSCS protection and is not meant to be marketed to the average consumer. IT IS NOT A SAVINGS ACCOUNT.

One line (maybe two on small monitors!). That is all it takes.