Den of The Lion Investor

Following the decision by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of UK to shut down UK Land Investments, Lee Manning and Carlton Siddle of Deloitte & Touche LLP, the appointed Joint Administrators of the company, released a report on their findings a few days ago.

Creditors (including plot owners) of the company are advised to read the report and see what are the options available to them. The report is confidential so I do not wish to reveal too much of the details here.

Just for your information, the sole owner of UKLI is a person by the name of Baljinder Chohan. He has a number of companies in other countries that have similar names to UK Land Investments yet they do not have a common corporate parent. In addition, there were a number of loans by UKLI to these other companies which were made on non-commercial terms.

If you happen to have any dealings with these companies, I would encourage you to do the necessary due diligence before making any sort of commitment.

Click here to leave your comments.

On 1st April 2008, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) served a petition to UK Land Investments (UKLI) to cease operations.

The hearing date is Monday, May 26, at the Royal Courts of Justice, known as London Companies Court, when the future of the company will be decided.

You can view a copy of the liquidation gazette here.

Hwever, it seems that the company will still continue to operate outside the UK as UK Land Investments International.

I mentioned in my previous post on Jardin Smith International Singapore that I will be elaborating more on UK land banking (or strategic land investment). Other than Jardin Smith, there are a few other companies offering this product in Singapore, two of which are Uk Land International and Profitable Plots.

If you have found my blog because you were doing further research on this topic, good for you. In any investment (especially non-regulated ones), it pays to do your due diligence before you commit any sum of money.

Successful investing is all about managing your risks and if you do not know what your risks are, you stand a higher chance of losing your hard-earned money.

One approach I take when doing any research on a new unregulated investment product is to search google for that topic with the word “scam” added behind. While there are both truths and lies sprouting on the internet and you would be wise to take things you find with a pinch of salt, the internet is still a good starting point for any research.

If you search “Uk land investment scam” in google, you are likely to find a couple of sites discussing about UK land investments. There is one site which stands out: Property Scam, which is dedicated to discussing everything about UK land investments.

From that site, I found out a few things:

• Besides Jardin Smith International, Profitable Plots and UK Land International, there are dozens of land investment companies around the world dealing in UK land investment. The list includes:
  • Hambrook & Greenstock
  • Property Spy
  • Land Investment Association
  • Townfield Land Investments Limited
  • English Land Partnership (ELP)
  • European Land Sales Partnership
    • Exposed by BBC “Inside Out”
  • UK Land Investments Group (UKLI)
    • One of their past auditors, Moore Stephens, discharged themselves
    • UKLI respond to Moore Stephens’ resignation
    • Posted misleading claims on their website about their partners
• A few of them have ceased operations and their investors are left holding the land they bought from them.
• So far, there has not been any documented success of planning permission being obtained by these companies.
• The plot you buy has a huge mark-up of 10-100 times. Read this article for examples. That is how most of the companies has been able to expand so rapidly even though they do not have any success stories yet.

While I cannot ascertain that everything written at Property Scam is true, investing in UK land through a land banking company can be a highly risky affair. However, the returns are very high if planning permission can be obtained.

If you are considering investing, please do your due diligence on the company you are investing with, and only invest with a company you can trust (and with money you can spare). Good luck.