Gates@Château Latour
There have been several recent reports in the press about an
autumn launch of the Wine Investment Association.
‘Leading companies in the wine investment industry are looking to set up
a regulatory body to combat an influx of bogus sellers and prevent company
collapses.
In the past two years, 50 wine investment
companies have collapsed, potentially costing investors thousands, while the
market has been beset with firms looking to capitalise on buyers' ignorance by
selling wine at inflated prices.
Peter Shakeshaft, the founder of Vin-X is
behind the new body and says he and other major players are looking for all
firms to comply with a new code of practice that should be in place by the
autumn.’
Independent, 8 July 2012
‘Vin-X along with a number
of committed companies are moving forward rapidly to forming a self-regulatory
body and look forward to publishing its charter in the Autumn…
‘We want an industry that is transparent,
safe and open to everyone, not just High Net Worth individuals, the investor's risk
should be limited to the individual wine and the market performance and not to
the integrity and professionalism of the agent they deal with.’
Peter Shakeshaft: Huffington Post, 5 September 2012
‘Shakeshaft said his firm
had joined forces with five others to create the Wine Investment Association, a
regulatory body with the aim of safeguarding private investors. It is due to
launch in the autumn.’
Harpers, 7 September 12
‘Four UK wine investment
companies – Albany Portfolio Management, Vin-X, Provenance Wines and Culver
Street – are set to launch the UmmK’s first ever Wine Investment Association.
According to Albany’s David Jackson. ‘The WIA will have a number of aims, most
importantly to protect investors from bogus sellers and company collapses.’’
Decanter, October 2012
Handled properly this new initiative could be an important step in
reducing the current pandemic of dubious wine investment companies as well as
the outright bogus ones. The initiative is not as far advanced as these reports
might indicate. The proposals for this putative body are now with lawyers and,
as yet, there is no signed agreement between the four companies. It looks like
an ‘autumn launch’ may be a fairly elastic timescale.
Although moves towards regulation are welcome I think there are a
number of conditions that have to be fulfilled if it is going to gain the
confidence of the fine wine trade and, most importantly, that of investors. If
WIA is to be a success it will need widespread support. These conditions should
include:
a. The association should be fully independent of the companies
concerned
b. The criteria for membership should be rigorous.
c. Suitability for membership should be independently verified
including membership for the founding companies.
d. If the WIA is to attract other members from the fine wine sector
the proposals will need to go out for consultation once they have been framed
and before the organisation is launched.
e. Once the proposals have been framed and before it is launched, the
WIA should go out for consultation to ensure feedback from the fine wine trade
and to attract additional members.
f. The aim has to be transparency. This should apply not only to the
process of buying but to the companies involved, their directors and those
responsible for giving investment advice.
The WIA urgently needs an agreed message and a single spokesperson
responsible for putting over that message. Unless this done soon, there is a
real danger that the credibility of the initiative will be seriously
compromised even before the association's proposals have been agreed.
To date those setting up the WIA have not been circumspect in the
choice of people speaking on its behalf. Any spokesperson for the WIA must
expect rigorous media scrutiny - both from the wine press and the wider media.
The past histories of David Jackson (a director of Albany Portfolio Management
Ltd) and Peter Shakeshaft (the director of Vin-X Ltd) and are likely to
undermine confidence the WIA initiative for the following reasons:
David Jackson
Jackson was the general manager of Goldman Williams Ltd (a wine
investment company closed in the public interest January 2002). He was then a
founder and director of Bordelais & Dutch (another wine investment company
closed in the public interest in January 2003). In 2005 he was working for
Stephen Cleeve's European Land Sales Partnership - a land banking scam. In
addition to extensive land banking Cleeve has been involved in multiple other
investment scams - barrels of whisky, Champagne for the millennium, and pipes
of ruby Port. Cleeve served an eight-year term as a banned director. Jackson
says he didn't know Cleeve but minimal due diligence would have plenty of
information on Cleeve's 'colourful' career.
Jackson assures me that he has changed. Certainly I have not received
any complaints about Albany Portfolio Management Ltd. It was, however,
disappointing to discover that Jackson had photos of his time with Goldman
Williams on his Facebook (removed only last week). This may suggest that he is
still not fully aware of the offense caused by the images of the Goldman
telesales staff out on the town celebrating fuelled by commissions gained by
duping investors.
Peter Shakeshaft
Shakeshaft was CEO of Wills & Co Financial Group plc,
the unregulated holding company for Wills & Co Stockbrokers Ltd. Wills
& Co Ltd was described by Tony Hetherington in The Mail on Sunday
(6.11.2011) thus: ‘Wills & Co were as
dodgy as they come.’
In October 2007 the company was fined £49,000 by the FSA
for the misselling of high-risk securities to private clients and required to
rectify these failings. Following an inspection by the FSA in May 2008 the
authority concluded that Wills & Co had not taken adequate and appropriate
steps to address the failings. The company was referred to the Enforcement
Division of the FSA and in December 2009 its license to advise clients on
securities was withdrawn because of evidence of continued misselling. Wills
& Co was then wound down and finally wound up in the High Court in July
2011.
Although Shakeshaft was not a director of Wills & Co
Ltd during the time of the misselling identified by the FSA he was CEO of the
holding company and had a responsibility to ensure that the required remedial
action was put in place and that the misselling ceased even if financial rules
prevented him from knowing all the details.
Shakeshaft, who a director of Wills & Co from August
2010 to May 2011 explains:
-->
‘I became a director only after the trading
had ceased and it was in administration. I did that because firstly I
wanted to ensure all the clients had what they were entitled to. (I again
confirm that every share cert and every penny was accounted for) but also it
was important to me to demonstrate to the outside world that even though this
catastrophic event had occurred I was prepared to take responsibility and
conduct an orderly wind down of the business.’
Darren Lansdown, a director of both Wills & Co
Stockbrokers Ltd and Wills & Co Stockbrokers Ltd, was censured by the FSA
in February 2010: (www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/final/d_lansdown.pdf).
Although not a director of Vin-X Ltd, he is described as an associate director
of the company.
**
The Wine & Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) guidance for wine
investors has been criticised for lacking teeth. This is to misunderstand its
purpose. The WSTA is not regulatory body and its wine investment site is
designed solely to give advice and warn investors against shady practice.
