FetteredChinos
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i know nothing about the company , nor the shares,
but ask yourself why they might have approached you to buy these shares....
in other words. Barge Pole.
i recommend a 15-footer
but ask yourself why they might have approached you to buy these shares....
in other words. Barge Pole.
i recommend a 15-footer
g h jones said:Hi Im new to this game but a company by the name of G.S.aguilla approached me regarding some shares. Anybody heared of them and are they reputable?
Thanks
Share offer you can refuse
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If you think you are a victim of financial mismanagement, or want advice before investing, write to Tony Hetherington, Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS. Sorry, but he cannot give personal replies. Please send only copies of documents - if these are relevant to your enquiry. We regret that they cannot be returned.
A. E. writes: I have received phone calls from an investment company called GS Anguilla. The first was about shares I had bought five years ago, but as they are showing a loss I politely declined. The next offered shares in a company called Screen 4 Health. I was told they were to be floated publicly in mid-February at 49p, but I could get in now at 40p. I said I would think about it, but they chased me again, saying the deal they offered was about to close.
GS ANGUILLA is supposed to be based on the West Indian island of Anguilla, but it has a London phone number and its website, gsanguilla.com, is registered to a company based in the Slovak Republic.
Staff seem to be operating from an office in Barcelona. And it is no surprise to find that GS Anguilla is not registered with the Financial Services Authority, probably ruling out compensation if there are problems.
The company seems to take pride in this. It says: 'We do not suffer the vast costs and excessive paperwork required by regulators such as the FSA. We are self-regulating.' Screen 4 Health does exist. It is based in Taunton, Somerset. But its shares are not publicly traded, even though they are given pride of place on GS Anguilla's website, where they are offered at 50p each on the firm's own 'Off Exchange Market'.
This sounds very like the genuine British Ofex market, but there is no connection and Ofex staff told me they had not even received an application from Screen 4 Health.
If an application is received, I was told, there is no guarantee it would be accepted, so anyone investing now takes the risk of being locked into unquoted shares.
Screen 4 Health boss Barry Hutchison tells me that the company does plan to apply to Ofex, but not for another few weeks. And he predicted the offer price for the shares could be anywhere between 40p and 60p.
Well, if the shares are not yet publicly traded, how can GS Anguilla be selling them? Where is it getting the shares it sells? Hutchison told me: 'We sold a number of shares in a private placement about six months ago to European Trust, a Maltese company.'
It is these shares that are being marketed by GS Anguilla. According to Hutchison, the placement was organised by a London firm, Alfred Henry, which is helping Screen 4 Health launch its shares. So in a nutshell, an unauthorised offshore broking firm that hides its true location is selling unquoted shares it obtained through yet another offshore firm, and at a price it alone decides.
Needless to say, you should keep your cheque book firmly closed. And I wish Screen 4 Health luck. A year or so ago, GS Anguilla was selling shares in another UK company, Newlife Plastics.
Those shares never got a stock market quote, but they are still being offered at 17p on GS Anguilla's own private market, despite the fact that Companies House is considering an application to strike off the company.
