Helvetia Wealth gone bankrupt?

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

Founder
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It appears that Helvetia Wealth has filed for bankruptcy.

Brendan

[broken link removed]

Helvetia Wealth in bankruptcy

"The company once announced an "aggressive" expansion and presented itself as a poster child of Swiss banking, in particular in the British Isles. Now it seems to be all over. If the details from Helveita Wealth are correct, there are over one billion of assets under management involved."[one article mentioned 1.2 billion Swiss francs, which is a bit under 1 billion euro]

Thanks to user Janet for the translation
 
I've never came a cross these guys over here... but then again this is a company with an issued share capital of 200K, two board members (both Germans) and there are lots of little companies like this around.

In 2012 some of the senior management left and the auditors resigned...

To operate in Switzerland they should have been registered with FINMA (not FMA) and as it is not listed as FINMA supervised liquidation, I expect they not in fact operate here.

I have to say it is quiet an achievement for an asset management company to go bankrupt! Their expansion plans must have involved the payment of some major retros along the way.
 
As I understand it, the way the company was set up, meant that it was not necessary for them to be registered with FINMA.

The insolvency should come as no surprise given that their Scottish based company Dunedin Independent were wound up leaving investors facing losses. I am not allowed to post a link to an article in the scotsman newspaper which supports this claim but a quick google search will confirm this.
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The question remains what is the scale of investment in Ireland? Still no reporting coming from mainstream Irish media, very strange given the high profile appointment of Mr. Bertie Aherne as Chairman of the Irish Forestry Fund
 
Brendan, you might recall they were chasing people a number of years ago. They made contact with me and I told them to take a hike and they had a pop at you threatening all kinds of legal action.

I'm not surprised they have gone bang, but from previous experiences, it couldn't have happened to nicer people.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
It appears that Helvetia Wealth has filed for bankruptcy. Here is the Google translation of the article in a German paper

Brendan

[broken link removed]

Helvetia Wealth in bankruptcy

The company announced once an "aggressive" expansion and presented himself as a figurehead of Swiss banking, particularly in the British Isles. Now it seems to be over it. Should the details of Helvetia Wealth agree, it comes to over a billion in assets under management.
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Just 'cos I can, :) here's a slightly better translation than google:

"The company once announced an "aggressive" expansion and presented itself as a poster child of Swiss banking, in particular in the British Isles. Now it seems to be all over. If the details from Helveita Wealth are correct, there are over one billion of assets under management involved."[one article mentioned 1.2 billion Swiss francs, which is a bit under 1 billion euro]
 
There are comment on the motley fool site in the UK where investors are having no luck in getting a response from Helvetia Wealth. There must be someone who can comment on investment from Ireland? I am particularly concerned about The irish Forestry Fund who were/ are in partnership with HW and irish asset management?
 
I see the online magazine responsible investor has reported the story but its behind a paywall
 
Sorry, I don't have much time: http://www.swiss-advocate.com/en/ half way done, left hand side.

Helvetia Wealth AG (Zurich, Liechtenstein, Kilkenny, London) Our Law Firm is representing all legal interests of investors having suffered losses in the course of the bankruptcy of Helvetia Wealth AG, domiciled in Zurich, with business as well as subsidiaries in Kilkenny, London and Liechtenstein. In this course of action, we are checking to bringing in civil as well as criminal actions against the respective companies and their directors by means of Swiss Bankruptcy Law, Swiss Civil Code and Swiss Criminal Code.

Should you wish to discuss your case strictly confidentially, please do not hesitate to contact either Daniel Fischer or Stephan Pöhner, info@swiss-advocate.com.
Click to expand...
 
As far as I remember, Helvetia Wealth were authorised by the Central Bank to conduct investment business in this country. Surely there is some recompense for Irish Investors that have lost out.

They were a shabby and cheap outfit who persisted in trying to get clients involved. I would certainly be worried for the investors in the Forestry funds which were somewhat questionable previous to these events.
 
Niall Brady has a piece in the Sunday Times on this

Blow for Helvetia Wealth Investors

They were granted permission by a Zurich court for a restructuring which could result in heavy losses for Irish investors.

The Central Bank issued a [broken link removed] about them on Friday which according to Niall Brady
"the firm was operating illegally in Ireland from its base in Switzerland. While investment firms in Liechtenstein are allowed to sell into the EU, Swiss firms cannot".
 
mercman said:
As far as I remember, Helvetia Wealth were authorised by the Central Bank to conduct investment business in this country. Surely there is some recompense for Irish Investors that have lost out.
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Brendan, If this company were authorised previously by the Central Bank and others invested on the basis of this, do the investors have any fall back on past investments if they were authorised ??
 
That's a bizarre statement by the Central Bank. Considering the high profile of Helvetia Wealth took in this Country, why are they suddenly coming out now saying they are unregulated? Have the Central Bank issued previous warning about them? I always assumed they did European business through their office in Liechtenstein.
 
Sunny said:
That's a bizarre statement by the Central Bank. Considering the high profile of Helvetia Wealth took in this Country, why are they suddenly coming out now saying they are unregulated? Have the Central Bank issued previous warning about them? I always assumed they did European business through their office in Liechtenstein.
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Good point!

I raised their regulatory status with the Financial Regulator in January 2007.

(It's hard to believe that it was 7 years ago.)

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showpost.php?p=356813&postcount=17
 
Brendan Burgess said:
"the firm was operating illegally in Ireland from its base in Switzerland. While investment firms in Liechtenstein are allowed to sell into the EU, Swiss firms cannot".
Click to expand...

I don't know where he is getting his information from, but he is wrong. Swiss firms are certainly allowed to sell into the EU and Liechtenstein firms actually regulated by the Swiss authorities on behalf of Liechtenstein. Furthermore, I can not find for them listed as authorized in Liechtenstein either.

It would be interesting to know what the Irish regulators did in this case... In the normal course of events such companies are entitled to sell their products into Ireland. However the Irish authorities are supposed to jointly regulate them with the Swiss authorities, they can not just wash their hands of them. I wonder when this firm started pushing its products here, did anyone in the regulators office even bother to call Zurich to see what the story was???
 
Jim2007 said:
I don't know where he is getting his information from, but he is wrong. Swiss firms are certainly allowed to sell into the EU and Liechtenstein firms actually regulated by the Swiss authorities on behalf of Liechtenstein. Furthermore, I can not find for them listed as authorized in Liechtenstein either.
Click to expand...

Liechtenstein is in the European Economic Area (EEA); Switzerland is not. Investment firms in the EEA can "passport" into the EU; those outside the EEA cannot. Central Bank of Ireland issued warning about Helvetia Wealth when it was found to be selling financial services from Switzerland into Ireland.

Jim2007 said:
It would be interesting to know what the Irish regulators did in this case... In the normal course of events such companies are entitled to sell their products into Ireland. However the Irish authorities are supposed to jointly regulate them with the Swiss authorities, they can not just wash their hands of them. I wonder when this firm started pushing its products here, did anyone in the regulators office even bother to call Zurich to see what the story was???
Click to expand...

Central Bank only has a regulatory role when foreign firms that "passport" into Ireland establish a branch in Ireland. Otherwise all responsibility for regulation rests with the home country regulator: Liechtenstein in the case of Helvetia Wealth.
 
Hi Niall.

I missed your article on this. I presume Helvetia were only guilty of doing this in recent times hence the Central Bank warning. Someone in the EEA must have been regulating them at some stage though if they were passporting in products in the past through MIFID?? So were they a regulated entity anywhere?
 
Hi Sunny,

Central Bank issued the warning after Helvetia Wealth issued a letter from Switzerland asking clients in Ireland and other EU countries to participate in a SFr1m capital injection to help it cope with a "liquidity crisis".
Helvetia Wealth "passported" under Mifid and is supposed to be regulated in Liechtenstein.
 
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