Raided by CAD, the group’s MD claims some buyers don’t understand concept
‘Completely misguided’ is how the directors of strategic land investment firm Profitable Plots have described the complaints made against the company – complaints that have prompted the white-collar crime police to step in.
And the company, perhaps best known for its tagline ‘Buy UK Land! We did!’ – once uttered by some of the best-known names in football – is keen to set the record straight.
Last week, the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) raided the offices of Singapore-based Profitable Plots, carted away just about every document it had and brought its directors in for questioning.
This was two months after a group of disgruntled investors turned up at Speakers’ Corner to protest against the company, claiming they were owed money. Some investors have filed claims against Profitable Plots – although none have been successful so far.
Profitable Plots’ group managing director Tim Goldring told BT he believes the complaints and the resulting CAD probe are a result of ‘people (being) frightened of what they don’t understand’ – that is, the complex business of investing in land overseas.
A case in point is a complaint brought up by an investor at Speakers’ Corner – who told Channel NewsAsia he had invested $180,000 in eight parcels of land slated for housing development in the UK, only to find out the land had been designated ‘green belt . . . (which) is basically conservation land where the prospect of development is zero or maybe 5 per cent’.
According to Mr Goldring, that belief is completely untrue. ‘Green belt land is being built on every year in the UK – you just have to adhere to certain guidelines for development (such as, maintaining a certain degree of open space),’ he said. ‘If you check the UK land use statistics, you’ll see there’s development on green belt every year. Even Prince Charles has plans to build on green belt.
‘And in this particular example, the eight parcels of land have been designated as brownfield land (which is previously used land that can be redeveloped) by the local council.’
Mr Goldring said that while he believes CAD is duty bound to investigate complaints, he has found the small number of complaints he has encountered have arisen from competitors or from people who do not understand the intricacies of UK land laws. ‘And frivolous complaints could waste a lot of time for everyone,’ he said.
Profitable Plots’ group operations director John Nordmann believes some of the unhappiness might stem from the state of the economy as a whole.
‘In the past couple of years, we have paid out in excess of $50 million to our investors,’ he said. ‘And we have done 14,000 transactions since 2004. We have never lost any money for any of our clients (a statement reiterated in bold on the company’s website), even during these tough times. A handful of people are unhappy, but given the economic situation, I guess they’d be unhappy.
‘But as a testament to our business, I can tell you that the bulk of our customers keep coming back – 70 to 75 per cent of our business is repeat business.’
Profitable Plots, part of the global strategic investment entity that is Profitable Group, was set up in Singapore in 2004. It has since opened offices in Malaysia, Brunei, Canada, the Philippines and Thailand, among various places.
It’s a company well known among football fans – thanks to an advertising campaign that ran from 2006 to 2007, with commercials that aired during just about all football matches here and featured many familiar faces on and off the pitch.
The ads had local football commentator Jamie Reeves and his Malaysian counterpart Shebby Singh – as well as former Manchester United player and Middlesborough manager Bryan Robson – telling viewers to ‘Buy UK Land! We did!’.
Steve McMahon, former Liverpool and England footballer (and also a commentator on local television), was also featured in the ad campaign and worked for a while for The Profitable Group as its group commercial director.
Source : Business Times – 26 Aug 2010