Thousands of investors with more than £45m held in “mini-bonds” issued by property investment firm Blackmore face an anxious wait to find out if they will get any cash back after the firm appointed administrators on Thursday.
Geoff Bouchier and Benjamin Wiles of Duff & Phelps have been appointed after a winding up petition was presented against the firm by bondholders last week. This was due to be heard in August.
In a letter to bondholders on Thursday, the trustee – Oak Fund Services – said Blackmore had taken out loans in February and April and had bought further sites, which were “potentially detrimental to the interests of the bondholders and represented a failure by company to be transparent in its dealings with the trustee”.
The firm said it was “too early to reach a conclusion on the likely recoveries of bondholders” and that investors could be waiting more than 18 months. “An administration in a complex case and can take 12 – 18 months and sometimes longer,” it said.
Patrick McCreesh and Phillip Nunn, formerly joint chief executives of Blackmore Bonds, said: “Whilst we have suffered a very challenging trading period due to a range of external factors impacting on the property market, we remained confident that a solution could be found and we were working tirelessly to secure additional funding.”