Have you heard of this company? Artemis Bellet?
http://www.artemisbellet.com/about-team.php
My response:
Artemis Bellet Ltd is a very recently formed company. It was registered on 8th April 2010 and is based at 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London EV1V 4PY. The sole director is 32-year-old Ike Karl Chambers of Tooting, London. He was appointed on 4th June 2010, so it may well be that the company has only been trading for a week.
Despite the company's recent formation its website claims that 'a leading London based wine investment house focused on advising private and institutional clients across a broad range of diversified products'. Also their expertise is 'widely accepted' within the industry.
Further extracts from their website:
Despite the company's recent formation its website claims that 'a leading London based wine investment house focused on advising private and institutional clients across a broad range of diversified products'. Also their expertise is 'widely accepted' within the industry.
Further extracts from their website:
'Who we are
Artemis Bellet is a leading London based wine investment house focused on advising private and institutional clients across a broad range of diversified products.
Since the company's founding, our values have been to sustain investment grade products to suit our client's individual portfolios. We provide solutions to help our clients proceed towards their goals by focusing on returns. We judge it is our responsibility not only to help maximise our client's investment potential but also to protect their assets and their family's future.
What we do
It is widely accepted we provide and source the best opportunities on investment grade fine wines within the industry. We present our clients with the most attractive and sought after tools to form a tailor-made and well diversified tangible investment.
In conjunction with our Purchasing Agents, we source our wines, your investment, directly from Château to secure provenance. Access to these finest wines gives our clients the benefit from the potential steep rise in value that can occur due to market demand.
Do I need to be an expert?
Absolutely not. Our experience and expertise is in identifying and sourcing wines which, in our opinion, have strong investment potential.
How quickly can I sell?
You can sell whenever you like, as the best wines of Bordeaux enjoy a ready secondary market. Whilst there are often impressive short term gains (our wines have increased by as much as 85% in the last 12 months alone).
Wine storage
Artemis Bellet recommends our clients to store the wines with a private trust account in a bonded warehouse, in this manner the wine belongs to you at all times and can only be removed from the bond with the combined signatures of that of the client / beneficiary in the event of death and Artemis Bellet.
Provenance
Provenance is becoming increasingly important when you come to sell any of your wines. Private investors, auction houses and wine merchants will ask where and how the wine has been stored before agreeing to handle the sale. Artemis Bellet has built a treasured service of recommending and utilising their resources ensuring that the wines are in perfect condition for the future.
Some 10,000 private collectors, investors and wine merchants from 39 countries choose to store their collections at the bonded warehouse.Stored securely at the bonded warehouse, 100 feet below the ground your wine is finer, safer and more valuable as a result.
* This would appear to be utter nonsense. If you set up a private account at a bonded warehouse you have full control over your wine. Artemis Bellet Ltd would have no involvement. It is for this reason that I recommend people to set up their own storage accounts with a bonded warehouse.
I would not consider buying from Artemis Bellet Ltd until they had established a track record or shown evidence of an existing one.
Update: 4th August 2012: Artemis Bellet Ltd was dissolved through a voluntary strike off on 26th July 2011.
I would not consider buying from Artemis Bellet Ltd until they had established a track record or shown evidence of an existing one.
Update: 4th August 2012: Artemis Bellet Ltd was dissolved through a voluntary strike off on 26th July 2011.
There website seems contradictory, they tall k about opening an account at the storage yet login through there website and no one answers the phone....
ReplyDeleteA strange company indeed
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteNew wine company details
Current Appointments Report for:
ARTEMIS BELLET LTD
07216402
Created: 11/06/2010 11:16:13
Companies House is a registry of corporate information. We carry out basic checks to make sure that documents have been fully completed and signed, but we do not have the statutory power or capability to verify the accuracy of the information that corporate entities send to us. We accept all information that such entities deliver to us in good faith and place it on the public record. The fact that the information has been placed on the public record should not be taken to indicate that Companies House has verified or validated it in any way.
Company Register Information
Company Number: 07216402 Date of Incorporation:08/04/2010
Company Name: ARTEMIS BELLET LTD
Registered Office: 2ND FLOOR
145-157 ST JOHN STREET
LONDON
ENGLAND
EC1V 4PY
Company Type: Private Limited Company
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Status: Active
Nature Of Business (SIC(92)): None Supplied
Number of Charges: ( 0 outstanding / 0 part satisfied / 0 satisfied)
Previous Names
No previous name information has been recorded over the last 20 years.
Key Filing Dates
Accounting Reference Date: 30/04
Last Accounts Made Up To: (NO ACCOUNTS FILED)
Next Accounts Due: 08/01/2012
Last Return Made Up To:
Next Return Due: 06/05/2011
Last Bulk Shareholders List: Not available
Current Appointments
Number of current appointments: 1
DIRECTOR: CHAMBERS, IKE KARL MR
Appointed: 04/06/2010 Date of Birth: 27/03/1978
Nationality: BRITISH
No. of Appointments: 1
Address: 14A OSWARD ROAD
TOOTING
LONDON
UNITED KINGDOM
SW17 7SS
Country/State of Residence: UNITED KINGDOM
This Report excludes resignations
Recent Filing History
Documents filed since 08/04/2010
DATE FORM DESCRIPTION
07/06/2010 TM01 APPOINTMENT TERMINATED, DIRECTOR WESTCO DIRECTORS LTD
07/06/2010 TM01 APPOINTMENT TERMINATED, DIRECTOR IAN TAYLOR
04/06/2010 AP01 DIRECTOR APPOINTED MR IKE KARL CHAMBERS
08/04/2010 NEWINC CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATIONGENERAL COMPANY DETAILS & STATEMENTS OF;OFFICERS, CAPITAL & SHAREHOLDINGS, GUARANTEE, COMPLIANCEMEMORANDUM OF ASSOCIATION
08/04/2010 LATEST SOC 08/04/10 STATEMENT OF CAPITAL;GBP 1
08/04/2010 MODEL ARTICLES MODEL ARTICLES ADOPTED: PRIVATE LIMITED BY SHARES
This Report excludes 88(2) Share Allotment documents
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThere website seems contradictory, they tall k about opening an account at the storage yet login through there website and no one answers the phone....
A strange company indeed
ANON Can you be sure you're dialing the correct number?
I only ask because of the typo's in your post.
It would be rash to brand a company a "strange company indeed" solely based upon this information.
The power of websites like investdrinks to bring down companies based upon speculation should not be underestimated.
From the grammar of your post, one could speculate that you are not a sophisticated investor and therefore should not be commenting on the merits of specific wine investments or firms.
However my personal prejudice against people commenting on subjects they appear unqualified to comment on should not deter other people from making unsubstantiated claims either.
I have received the following message from Matthew Mansell of Artemis Bellet Ltd giving details about the company:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your email. The investment floor has been created to handle clients with interest in alternative assets class from Europe and UK. Most of our Portfolio Executives including myself have experience mainly in more mainstream markets such as equities but we are turning our attention to other asset classes considering the current economic appetite. Sometimes we find treating this product as a financial instrument may focus more on potential profit margin for our clients rather than purely for the love of the wine.
The Wine Fund has been a closed shop to new investors for the past 6 months (as we need time for the investment to mature and absolute exit for all clients) hence our repositioning in London to handle a smaller UK base.
As we are part of a Genève based hedge fund we did not need regulation from either FSA or FINMA for any of our instruments even though we do actively urge individual regulation within the organisation and the majority of our employees are FSA licensed. We are a separate entity from Genève within this respect and have developed our own strategy in relation to return.
We are attempting to allow some of our current UK clients to avail of our pricing and access to some of what we would consider a sensible investment grade product.
We have quite a few analysts choosing for us but we would greatly appreciate your input as per possible issues we may occur. We would be happy to put some of our pricing and products across your desk for comment to see what you think. I think our pricing is quite keen and believe our provenance is secure. We would really appreciate your experience in any form.
Jim would you care to share with us your decision to edit your original post?
ReplyDeleteThe current version now seems to omit the bold red top sensationalist statement that you would [sic] certainly not buy from this company.
I can't of course find the original 'unsanitised' version with the correct quotation - much the same as the original content of the investdrinks.org site.
Are we to assume that by its omission you would now at least consider a purchase through Artemis Bellet?
Or is it wrong of me to make public assertions, based on assumption and when not in possession of all the facts?
SFH. I decided to remove the comment and replace it with a new comment at the end of the posting, which I hope makes my view clear.
ReplyDeleteDear Jim
ReplyDeleteTalk is cheap, what has Artemis Bellet done to prove they are who they say they are and that they are qualified in this area. They say they are part of a Genève based hedge fund, who is it then and why is it someone from tooting as the director, not exactly a place known where a fund managers lives who is supposedly managing g a mass amount of wealth, they say they have FSA regulated staff, so have you read about Tony Hetherington’s articles about, Pacific Continental, Wills and Co who are now wine brokers yet fleeced their clients, or some of the other shady FSA regulated staff from a variety of fallen stockbrokers that have gone into wine broking and land banking…. Talk is cheap where the evidence that are what they say, a flash website means nothing, JIM I hope you are looking deeper into this
Anon. I have asked for the name of the hedge fund in Geneva and the name of the wine fund as yet I have had no response.
ReplyDeleteAn edited message from anon:
ReplyDelete'Dear Jim
It is not possible to offer clients a good investment in wine with large sales operations as the amount of commission these brokers require would make it impossible to offer clients a reasonable rate of return, and still give the company a healthy profit margin. It is my opinion that a minimum of 25% -30% surcharge is required which makes offerings in 2nd growth wines unfeasible unless they are held for many years or purchased as en primeur from day one.
It is my opinion that wine investment companies such as Artemis Bellet are looking to try whats called the Southside shuffle, confuse and bewilder you with well written letters and being great fund managers from Switzerland etc. IF they are they will already have a client base and would not require a company with a totally different name to their one in Genève. It has been proven by the FSA, that there are many fake companies taking on the id of legitimate ones. Tony Hetherington has recently written about this in many articles. So saying they are part of such a big Swiss hedge fund does not quite add up.
They are now asking approval from you why! They are asking for you to review things why? If they know what they are doing and their pricing structure is fair, it will become apparent over time, would it not!'
It had struck me that if they were as competent as they claim, they would not need my advice.
Yet more edited and unsubstantiated accusations from the Anons.
ReplyDeleteTalk is indeed cheap, I for one certainly wouldn't trust anyone from Tooting and if Pacific Continental, Wills and Co were a scam then de facto Artemis Bellet must be.
I have also read and re-read the message from Matthew Mansell for a reference to Artemis being part of a 'big Swiss hedge fund' the post merely states they are part of a hedge fund, they openly state their past performance is in more mainstream markets, but looking to expand into other asset classes considering the current economic appetite - surely this is the norm for any company and more so for a financial company operating in this economy.
A company with common ownership but different trading names/styles is in no way uncommon or should be automatically construed as illegitimate. Similarly references to a 'Southside shuffle' and Tony Hetherington citing the FSA proving that there are many fake companies taking on the id of legitimate ones, is baseless and has no relevance to Artemis Bellet.
Jim you must begin to take responsibility if, these baseless accusations via your website cause material harm to a legitimate company.
SFH
ReplyDeleteTalk as you say is indeed cheap – but that cuts both ways. I have asked Matthew for the name of the hedge fund based in Geneva and the name of the wine fund. As yet I have had no response.
One would have thought these names would be on the Artemis Bellet site.
It would also be good to have the names of the majority of their employees who are FSA 'licensed'.
As far as I can see a Google search does not produce any reference for Artemis Bellet as 'a leading European Wine based Wine Investment House'.
SFH, I think you're missing an important point - this is a forum and as such Artemis Bellet are free to respond. These are very simple questions and if they're looking to investors to trust them with their hard earned money they need to repsond. In fact, in light of their claims you would think they would embrace this opportunity to promote themselves.
ReplyDeleteSome comments in support of Anon, above, and for the benefit of SFH:
ReplyDeleteI run a relatively new investment wine company which despite being highly visible on the web (and having no doubt come to the attention of Mr Budd) remains notably absent from this blog.
I believe that there are a number of reasons for this: the content of our website is factual, fully cited, transparent on pricing, costs, performance & risk and avoids irrelevant guff. Our prices are fair, we treat our customers respectfully & diligently (we do not cold call - not, I hasten to add, because we believe such activities determine wrong doing, but because we consider it unnecessarily intrusive) and their investments are performing very well. I would suggest that the care and honesty we have employed in our promotions are evident.
In consequence I believe that Mr Budd nor anyone else has cause to be concerned with our activities and it is unlikely that we would be subject to customers making complaints or the type of enquiry that lead to inclusion on blogs such as this.
SFH, I sympathise with your concerns that Mr Budd may be prone to employing a vigilante attitude, but my experience suggests that this is not indiscriminate and avoiding criticism is straightforward. Notwithstanding the rights or wrongs of Artemis Bellet (on which I offer no opinion), they do have a case to answer; they have published unsubstantiated claims in the public domain (on their website), and when quite rightly challenged have offered half-baked answers in an attempt to wash over the implied criticism, which have only served to expose them to further scrutiny. The consequences are theirs to bare.
You are quite right that inclusion on this site can be damaging by association (hence my decision to remain anonymous) but each of us peddling Lafite et al as an investment carries a great responsibility to our customers, and it is only right that sites like this operate to keep the whole thing honest. Equally it is wholly right that you and the other commentators be able to lock horns with Mr Budd to maintain a fair balance.
Dear Jim
ReplyDeleteWhat is taking Artemis Bellet so long in giving the name of their parent company, hedge funds, what is the capitalisation of Artemis Bellet, from records its 1 GBP, hardly what I call a vast amount that has been funded by a hedge fund....
Who is Matthew Mansell and what are his credentials and what is his CV... how do we even know that is his real name....
How do we know he is who he says he is!!!! what gives him the special qualifications and yes,
the simple truth
are they able to substantiate their claims.... the final answer lies with them.... all we have heard is talk, talk, talk, we have asked questions but not received substantiated quantifiable evidence in there favour
have they recapitalised yet to reflect ownership by a hedge fund!!!!
After due investigation
ReplyDeleteDIRECTOR Appointed: 04/06/2010
Occupation: LAND BROKER
Company Number: 07216402
Company Name: ARTEMIS BELLET LTD
Active
Name: IKE KARL CHAMBERS
Nationality: BRITISH
Latest Address: 14A OSWARD ROAD
TOOTING
LONDON
Postcode: SW17 7SS
Country/State of Residence: UNITED KINGDOM
SECRETARY Appointed: 20/02/2001
Occupation: DIRECTOR
Company Number: 04158618
Company Name: UKFLAVA LIMITED
Active - Proposal to Strike off
DIRECTOR Appointed: 20/02/2001
Resigned: 01/04/2001
Occupation: DIRECTOR
Company Number: 04158618
Company Name: UKFLAVA LIMITED
Active - Proposal to Strike off
Dear Mr. Budd
ReplyDeleteThe Swiss Hedge Fund which Artemis Bellet is part of should not take that long for them to contact you, if they were really part of such a fund they would require a licence. It is possible that Mr Chambers is not the real person in charge as the company formation agents used to create Artemis Bellet supply nominee shareholders and nominee directors, so we may never truly know the setup or true intent.
I am surprised that a company that is supposedly part of a well funded hedge fund have not had their Lawyers to contact you to clarify their legitimacy........ I thought that would have been the first thing to do.
Are we looking at a smoke and mirror illusion or the real thing: The more we look teh more questions are unanswered?
Whois record for artemisbellet.com
ReplyDeleteWhois Server Version 2.0
Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.
Domain Name: ARTEMISBELLET.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.tucows.com
Referral URL: http://domainhelp.opensrs.net
Name Server: NS.123-REG.CO.UK
Name Server: NS2.123-REG.CO.UK
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 29-mar-2010
Creation Date: 29-mar-2010
Expiration Date: 29-mar-2012
>>> Last update of whois database: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:55:38 UTC <<<
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Tucows whois lookup refused
what is going on recorsd from companies house, a change of directors again what are they hiding
ReplyDeleteAP01 23/06/2010 DIRECTOR APPOINTED IAN TAYLOR
Document
AP02 23/06/2010 CORPORATE DIRECTOR APPOINTED WESTCO DIRECTORS LTD
Document
TM01 07/06/2010 APPOINTMENT TERMINATED, DIRECTOR WESTCO DIRECTORS LTD
Document
TM01 07/06/2010 APPOINTMENT TERMINATED, DIRECTOR IAN TAYLOR
Document
AP01 04/06/2010 DIRECTOR APPOINTED MR IKE KARL CHAMBERS
Folder
NEWINC 08/04/2010 CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION
GENERAL COMPANY DETAILS & STATEMENTS OF;
OFFICERS, CAPITAL & SHAREHOLDINGS, GUARANTEE, COMPLIANCE
MEMORANDUM OF ASSOCIATION
Capital Statement Icon
LATEST SOC 08/04/2010 08/04/10 STATEMENT OF CAPITAL
GBP 1
Yes I noticed this anon. I'm not sure that it indicates that they are hiding anything, although it may indicate that this young company is having difficulty deciding who its directors should be.
ReplyDeleteDear Jim
ReplyDeletethe above is sometimes common practice to put someone in place that can obtain banking for the company and then putting the original directors back. I am not stating that this is happening in this instance but it does cross my mind... the bank is not informed, the other director resigns and then the company is open to be abused.... if the new directors are not so transparent or need to hide due to past history..... again I am not accusing just expressing a frame of thought
Hey guy's, I know it's been a long time but does anyone have any idea what these guy's are up to now? Last year there land banking fraud scheme was busted but I no they have moved onto Renewable energy just not sure of the trading name they go by. If anyone has any recent information on any of these indibiduals who had an involvement in the dodgy wine business please feel free to update the information here. Thanks. Especially for Ike Karl Chambers and Dylan Creaven.
ReplyDelete