1975 Share capital
1975 Share capital
Note:until the relaxation of exchange control regulations in England in 1979, a non-resident of the UK could not control more than 10% of the shares of a UK company.
Directors, excl. Lubner (he resigned) held 58 699 shares (2,5%) at this stage; London Cavendish Securities, in which Casper and Simmons were directors and controlling shareholders, held a further 284 841 (12,1%).
Capital Introductions Ltd, owned by Heathcote and Law, held 217 500 ordinary shares and £54 375 of the loan stock.
The company was ‘not aware of any shareholder beneficially interested in 10% or more of the share capital of the company’.
‘…the group’s financial position has reached a critical stage … [however] there is … some potential for recovery in the value of the group’s retained investments. The purpose of a reorganisation would be to stabilise the financial position of the Group, enabling the anticipated potential of these investments to develop to the advantage of shareholder. The principal asset upon which the future of the Group is considered to be based is the Group’s major property in Prinsengracht, Amsterdam. The proposals and means of effecting a viable reconstruction are in the course of being finalised, and it is hoped that shareholders will give it their unqualified support in due course. (from Review of Financial Period and Reasons for Proposed Capital Reconstruction, as part of the financial statements for the 18 months ended 31 March 1975)
‘Our special thanks … to Mr Bernard Glazer whose preparedness to capitalise his very substantial unsecured loan to the company (£213 322), which itself arose through the repayment by him of one of the company’s largest bank borrowings, has created a real possibility of a capital reorganisation.’ (from Review of Financial Period and Reasons for Proposed Capital Reconstruction, as part of the financial statements for the 18 months ended 31 March 1975)
Contingent Liabilities
‘The company has given an indemnity to a third party supported by a specific lien on certain of the Group’s Investments in respect of a guarantee of £251 000 given by the said third party to secure bank borrowings by Loncrest BV (a 40% owned company).’
Directors
Lionel Israel Casper
Brian Simmons
Alexander Lionel Silver, secretary
Gerald M Lubner, resigned 4 September 1974
William Moran Law, resigned 12 August 1975
Michael R Heathcote, resigned 12 August 1975
Subsidiaries (ref Appendix D)
Allied Plant Group (was Reynards (Excavations) Ltd) (sold ‘as a result of financial pressures on Crest’: to whom?)
Chromegrove Ltd (50,01%) (‘has sold a significant number of flats … at attractive prices’)
City & Commercial (Properties) Ltd (51%) (sold off: to whom?)
City & Cranbrook Securities Ltd (100%) (not discussed in notes; presume dormant)
Mirivale (TC Investments) Ltd (50,01%) (industrial space in Bristol not discussed; see Crest Int. Holland below)
Crest International Holland BV (held 100% by Mirivale) (freehold property in Amsterdam, now let to University of Amsterdam for five years @ D.Fls.600 000, £110 000 a year with annual indexed increases)
Crest International Holdings Ltd (sold off: share transfer form for Crest Int. Holdings shows Bernard Glazer became new holder of 80 shares on 8/1/76; other 20 held by Conrad Jeffrey Morris) (held 50% in Loncrest BV with Ladbrokes?)
London & Foreign Investment Trust Ltd (100%) (‘as the stock market [experienced] its unprecedented decline, we disposed of the greater part of the group’s portfolio’; however the portfolio stood at £937 966 at 31 March 1975, down from £1 304 351 in September 1973; according to the Ashbourne investigation report the market decline started on 12 November 1973, so this looks more like a depreciation in value rather than a disposal of the greater part of the group’s portfolio; stock exchange investments in the 1976 accounts were down to £230 187)
Lonfor Securities (held 100% by London & Foreign)
Corporate Guarantee Ltd (planned merger with this company owned by Stephen Barry and Stephen Ross) (a consortium consisting of Crest, Corporate and Glazer held 43% of the shares of Ashbourne Investments Ltd and a bid for the outstanding shares was being planned)
Worthmore Finance Ltd (30%) (‘owns a portfolio of income-producing properties in The Netherlands, originally purchased for long-term investment’; however financing difficulties as a result of weakened sterling et al cited as reason for it being ‘no longer the intention of the company to retain its portfolio of properties and a realisation programme is under way’; however, it was expected this would be a ‘long and difficult’ process; a further 30% of Worthmore was owned by Cloverhill Investments Ltd , of which Casper and Simmons had a controlling interest; Crest and Cloverhill had each made a loan of £161 550 to Worthmore.)
Ashbourne Investments Ltd (12%) (Corporate Guarantee held another 9,7% and together they formed a consortium along with Bernard Glazer to make a bid for Ashbourne; the market collapsed and the bid ran into trouble)
Dares Estates Ltd (shares of this company had been frozen in 1974, but this is the first mention of it on Crest’s balance sheet; Crest held loan stock and was receiving interest)
Auditors
Landau Morley
Year-end changed to 31 March
Bankers
not stated
_Address
_now given as 325 City Road, London EC1V 1LJ
1975 New Close Brothers MD
Rod Kent took over from James Leek as Close Brothers MD; Kent was a former Henry Schroder Wagg employee; he had attended Insead, a business school near Paris where he met Leek, in 1973/74. In 2002 Kent would be replaced by an Eton- and Oxford-educated South African, Colin Keogh (MBA Insead, Arthur Andersen, Saudi International Bank).