It does not seem good news and I should imagine the director's gallery above , of Robin Bolton, Ken Wills, Brian Moritz and Chris Seymour-Prosser, are not entirely happy at the moment.
Bertie is not an expert on these matters, so readers are asked to bear with me. It would seem that Dover Gateway Ltd was formed with CGI having a 40% share and a new company called Priory Land Ltd having a 60% share. Should money be made by Dover Gateway Ltd, CGI then get 40% still as well as the £5 million due to be paid for CGI's land at Western Heights and Farthingloe in Dover. I say due to be paid, as completion is due to occur within 90 days, as we enter June.
CGI, readers may recall, announced a few months ago that it had issued 1,570,283 shares to raise working capital to cover its running costs of only £148,391.74 and that most of the shares had been purchased by the chaps above, its Directors. Readers will also recall that in the heady days of 2007 and 2008 when CGI (formerly CGP) were planning to put China Gateway (Phases 1,2 & 3) not only on Manston Business Park but also on farm land adjacent, purchased from Struan Robertson et al at Alland Grange, they had ambitious plans for land at Dover, Manston and at Westwood in Wigan. Well it seems that Wigan is now a no go; land at Dover is being flogged off for £5 million and that will then leave CGI with only its portion of Manston Business Park (KCC and TDC, through EKO LLP own the key bits) and lots of agricultural land nearby with no planning consent.
CGI has a little problem perhaps; well to be more precise a £31.4 million one! In the heady days of 2007 it had a loan from The Israel Discount Bank(IDB) of £24.5 million that as a facility, grew to £28.5 million which was due to be repaid in Nov 2009. By July 2009, the debt with IDB was £31.4 million. The facility was repayable on demand but IDB (perhaps not wishing to get into farming in Thanet) agreed to extend the loan facility until 30 Jun 2010. It is interesting that CGI state that the £5 million for land in Dover is earmarked for repayment to IDB. With successful completion in 90 days, CGI would then have some money to repay IDB back some of its £31.4 million.
The question that has puzzled the 'Strife Team' this afternoon is who the heck are Priory Land Ltd and how come they have £5 million to throw at CGI's land in Dover as 'partners' in Dover Gateway Ltd. Their Company was formed very recently on 16/3/2009 and the No: 6848053 is theirs. They are shown as being at The Old Stables. Priory Lane in Bracknell and good old Bling Maps gives us a picture of their nerve centre below.
It's a pretty busy location in some expensive residential property in Bracknell, Berkshire: Elm Dyke Developments Ltd; Priory Lane Ltd and Priory New Homes Ltd are also located there. The odd thing about Priory Land Ltd is that a Google search reveals 'cached pages' ( their pages as they used to be) that seem linked to Easyspace.com and their contact telephone number 0800 612 4105 is unobtainable.
So the question remained this afternoon as to where does Priory Land Ltd get £5 million to provide the cash for Dover Gateway Ltd to buy CGI's land holdings at Dover? The answer would seem to be REAL- Real Estates Associates Ltd of One Heddon Street, London , W1B 4BD. They are FSA regulated fund managers who attract investment from various sources (private and others) to invest in property. They have a Partnership Land LP (limited partnership) that invests in residential land in the south -east of England and they would appear to be directing funds towards The Dover Gateway Project (Dover Gateway Ltd). It would seem from their press-release of 25 Jan 2010 that Priory Land Ltd is their 'asset manager' and you can read all about it here.
So, in terms of Thanet, where does that leave CGI and its agreed planning consent on Manston Business Park from 2008? I suspect, that unless investors in China commit to setting up at Manston Business Park on an individual basis, as the UK economy comes out of recession, CGI has further tough times ahead and that increased employment opportunities for the local economy in Thanet look dim.
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4 comments:
Bertie, this smacks of vultures closing in on the dying ox to pick its bones.
Interesting Wigan connection, is this why tdc had a junket up there a while ago i wonder!!!!
when is the start date for the build at maston business park , does any one know?
19.05, CGI were hoping to start work this Spring but as no meetings of TDC Planning are scheduled yet to approve the many conditions to be met for the Oct 2008 approved application, one cannot envisage movement to begin until this process has ocurred.
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