A copy of an email sent by Not Just Sheep & Rugby to the Avocet Group of disruptive technology key 'advisers' with a request for comment can now be read by the company's 650 shareholders after it was included in a letter to investors by Avocet chairman Martin Frost.
The 'mass circulation' of our correspondence took place overnight after the text was apparently forwarded to Mr Frost by Kit Jarvis, a partner in the London law firm FieldFisher.
FieldFisher together with share traders Asset Match and accountants Ryecroft Glenton are named as advisers to Avocet in the second of two Information Memorandums (IM) prepared for submission to wealthy investors in 2016 and 2018.
Copies of the documents - both marked strictly confidential - were passed to Not Just Sheep & Rugby by a very concerned shareholder who asked if any of the specialist companies had signed off the 2018 IM. So we wanted to find out if this had taken place.
This was our message to FieldFisher, Asset Match and Ryecroft Glenton:
"I have been contacted by a number of shareholders who are concerned that Avocet Infinite (now Omega Infinite) is in the hands of liquidators while a subsidiary, Orrdone Farms is in administration with published debts (administrators’ report) of over £3 million, including in excess of £600,000 owed to trade creditors. I am led to believe a significant number of investors are expressing their views on an Avocet shareholders’ forum.
"I am contacting you after a shareholder sent me copies of two ‘strictly confidential’ Avocet Information Memoranda (IM) dated October 2016 and November 2018 containing financial predictions for the businesses from 2017 onwards. The 2018 document includes a list of “DIRECTORS AND ADVISERS” including: Legal Advisers Fieldfisher LLP Riverbank House 2 Swan Lane London EC4R 3TT Auditors Ryecroft Glenton 32 Portland Terrace Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 1QP and Financial Advisers Asset Match Limited 1 Bow Lane London EC4M 9EE.
"The
individual who wrote to me and who attached the two IMs drew attention to the
following: “The financial projection categories differ between the two documents
but projected total revenue for Financial Year (FY) 2019, FY 2020 and FY 2021
remain constant in both cases.The 2016 IM quotes these revenue totals: 2019
£52.016 million; 2020 £122.951 million; 2021 £202.796 million. The 2018 IM
quotes these revenue totals: 2019 £188.70 million; 2020 £210,500 million; 2021
£390.600 million.”
"The
sender then went on to comment: “All of the figures are of course ludicrous and
grossly inflated. How could a Group which has never even traded tell potential
investors it was going to perform to this spectacular level. So what role did
the advisers named in the 2018 memorandum play in its preparation? Did they
check the information to see if the figures were realistic and plausible, and
did they sign off the document before it was issued to so-called High Net Worth
investors?”
"Can
you please provide a response to the points made above for possible inclusion in
an article concerning the IM projections and the views of concerned
shareholders?"
Not Just Sheep & Rugby has yet to hear from any of the three companies who were advising Avocet at the time the 2018 IM was produced.
But in his newsletter Mr Frost tells investors: "Shareholder,
solicitor Kit Jarvis whose father, is a High Court Judge, is also a shareholder,
this evening copied me the below email and that from Mr. B. Chisholm."
This is Mr Frost's reply to Mr Jarvis:
From:
"martin.frost"
Date:
03/08/2020 19:06 (GMT+00:00)
To:
Eirlys Lloyd; Bob jennings; Paul Charlton (Ryecrofts), Stuart Lucas (Asset
Match), Kit
Subject:
FW: Avocet Group projections
Dear
Kit
Thank
you for this.
The
2016 IM was never completed and not used - and indeed I understand that Aileen
Orr dropped in the 2018 IM figures into the 2016 IM. Both the 2018 IM and 2016
draft IM were provided to Mr. W. Cleghorn of Aver (partner of Emma Porter) by
Aileen Orr. Cleghorn knows Chisholm and I understand that Cleghorn is an
editorial source to Chisholm plus an undisclosed contributor to the Avocet
Shareholder Forum promoted by Aileen Orr.
The
2016 IM figures (unless used by Andrew Orr) secured zero investment - the 2018
IM figures may have influenced Wheatsheaf though Wheatsheaf did not proceed
because of Johne’s disease.
Bottom
line the fuel projections (and resultant profits) were deduced by Coller IP from
old ICI figures & World diesel consumption figures which again were echoed
in the Harvard Business School case study on Avocet. I understand that Mr.
Cleghorn is very worried about his bias support for the Orr family and no doubt
seeks to deflect attention elsewhere.
I
trust you are keeping well: I expect to meet with Begbies this Friday and shall
keep you appraised of developments.
Best regards
Martin
NOTE: For the record Chisholm has never met 'Cleghorn' and has never received any documents or correspondence from him.
No comments:
Post a Comment