There was a hedge fund company called Absolute Capital Management Ltd that was listed on the London Stock Exchange. They were struggling but I had hope and bought a few shares in May.
Shortly afterwards, they announced that they were delisting and offered to buy back any shares at 2.5p. I didn’t accept, and tucked away the shares in a bottom drawer and forgot about them.
Then a couple of weeks ago out of the blue I received a cheque from them for 7p a share. It stated this was an interim dividend. Great, but strange.
I now can’t find out anything about them. As they’re not on the stock exchange they don’t publish any information, and as a Cayman registered company I can’t seem to find out what this payment was for. I’m not sure whether there has been a fantastic turnaround in the company or if they’ve maybe just wound it up.
There’s no information on their website, no response from emails, and phone calls just go to voicemail. Is there any way I can find out what’s going on? Their last results were interims to June 2008, do Cayman companies have to file accounts, and if so where can I get these?
Oy. Some Caribbean based companies have offices there, and they really do business there. Many simply have a mail drop, and one nondescript two-story building may “house” the headquarters of hundreds of corporations. It’s a sweet little tax dodge, and it’s perfectly legal.
Somebody has the info you seek. Maybe the UK counterpart to the Securities & Exchange Commission can steer you in the right direction. Let us know how this works out, will you?
This is true, I used to know someone who worked for them. They were originally based in Spain and the trades were ‘routed’ through the Caymans to avoid tax (I suspect ‘evade’ tax was more appropriate). But they relocated to Switzerland. The UK equivalent of the SEC is the Financial Services Authority, I’ll try them but I think that as they are no longer listed in the UK they won’t be able to help.