London Capital and Finance

System

Oh thats hearbreaking. I thought i had found a chink of light
Then again , at least the company itself tries to restrict you ( i think)
I still cant understand why items like patisserrie valerie are in the papers but this isnt. I would have thought this is just as bad.

verybigchris

{text_removed_by_MSE_Forum_Team} wrote:

I wonder why this stuff doesnt appear in the normal daily newspapers so more people know.

Because the personal finance sections of newspapers are universally dreadful (if they were any good I wouldn't have to come here for financial news!)

masonic

{text_removed_by_MSE_Forum_Team} wrote:

I still cant understand why items like patisserrie valerie are in the papers but this isnt. I would have thought this is just as bad.

Similar schemes have been given wide press coverage when they failed:

From 2015:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jan/29/investors-lose-millions-bond-company-administration
https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2015/sep/05/independent-portfolio-managers-ipm-mini-bond-losses
https://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/thousands-of-uk-investors-could-lose-out-following-collapse-of-secured-energy-bonds-10015046.html
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-2931333/Energy-Bonds-promising-6-5-returns-good-true.html

From 2016:
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-3412252/FCA-urges-investors-failed-Secured-Energy-Bonds-write-firms-plugged-cases-Ombudsman.html
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/bonds/12120573/Mini-bond-investors-face-nervous-wait-for-their-money.html


From 2017:
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/diyinvesting/article-4160884/How-risky-mini-bonds-invest.html
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/bonds/mini-bond-firm-may-not-survive-auditor-warns/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/bonds/highly-unlikely-providence-mini-bond-investors-will-see-money/
https://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/mini-bond-firm-finally-ordered-to-cease-activity-by-fca/a1069922
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/bonds/regulator-cracks-mini-bond-firm/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/bonds/investors-given-green-light-complain-failed-energy-bonds/
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-4223064/FOS-probe-case-failed-Secured-Energy-Bonds.html

System

Thanks Masonic...thatll teach me to read the telegraph and guardian in the future for my information!

londoninvestor

masonic wrote: »

Fine in theory, but in practice people self-certify and no checks are made.

That said, this seems to be the case with companies offering legitimate sophisticated investments too. I doubt that my answers to the questionnaires on VCT or EIS applications have ever been checked.

The difference is that those companies don't try to mislead you as to the nature of the risk you are taking.

jimjames

{text_removed_by_MSE_Forum_Team} wrote:

Oh thats hearbreaking. I thought i had found a chink of light
Then again , at least the company itself tries to restrict you ( i think)

The issue is that the company (LCF) deliberately doesn't try to restrict you. They have deliberately sold to people who are unsuitable.

masonic

londoninvestor wrote: »

That said, this seems to be the case with companies offering legitimate sophisticated investments too. I doubt that my answers to the questionnaires on VCT or EIS applications have ever been checked.

The difference is that those companies don't try to mislead you as to the nature of the risk you are taking.

Yes, I've bought VCTs in the past without making any sort of investor declaration, although the risks were clearly presented (whereas I did have to self certify as sophisticated to transfer them onto a mainstream investment platform).

Malthusian

{text_removed_by_MSE_Forum_Team} wrote:

I still cant understand why items like patisserrie valerie are in the papers but this isnt. I would have thought this is just as bad.

McCakes lost more money. But it was mostly institutional money from people who knew the risks and very few individual investors would have had all their life savings invested in it.

The Evening Standard is covering LCF - https://www.standard.co.uk/business/bond-firm-lcf-lent-millions-on-pet-projects-a4044866.html

It was also covered in the Sunday Times, albeit it was mainly repeating the "everything is just fine" stance of the leader of the heavily censored Bondholders Facebook group.

The papers are however limited in what they can say by libel laws. Remember that it is not publicly known whether LCF has lost anyone's money yet. All that is publicly known so far is that the FCA has frozen all their assets including bank accounts, that LCF has loaned money to a network of companies linked to LCF's own directors, that LCF has paid 25%+ commission from money raised in its bonds, and that LCF's current ability to repay its debts is unknown due to its failure to file accounts in a timely fashion.

The short answer is what verybigchris said. Most journalists simply regurgitate press releases, and there aren't many press releases in a case like this.

Reaper

{text_removed_by_MSE_Forum_Team} wrote:

Thanks Masonic...thatll teach me to read the telegraph and guardian in the future for my information!

There were also links to "This Is Money". Surprisingly there is some decent financial journalism on the site even though it is owned by the Daily Mail which, hilariously, is currently being flagged by some browsers as an unreliable source of news. Sounds about right to me.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46976834

Sledger

Re assets I have asked this before I fail to understand that mega chunk of assets 284in the last audited 2017 accounts by Ernst Young as it is almost 5 fold of the bond value of 60 million. Page 1.