Hi - Hot from the Swamp today we have the Taylor St Baristas accounts. TSB used Crowdcube to raise £1.8m on a 4 year 8% bond. Target profits for YE Mar17 were just over £1m; generated by 20 coffee shops. The £800k loss has been generated by just 10.
Yet again we see the sort of ludicrous projections that Crowdcube promote on their platform coming to a sticky end. TSB now operates just one more unit than it did before it took the money off investors. Where did the £1.8m go? Who knows but.its gone.
So what? Investors are still getting their interest payments. Well yes for now they are. But with a BS at March 17 of minus £1.2m and no new funding since, it all looks a little stretched. The money is due back in 2019.
Investors can do nothing even if TSB collapse, as the bond was issued by a 100% subsidiary - Coffee Bond plc. Coffee Bond plc would eventually go bust but has no claim over the assets of TSB - as in the Square Pie fiasco. This no sense arrangement comes courtesy of the Crowdcube Primary 7 Bond Origami Group. Bless.
You would love their Bond Invitation Document - this one was certainly Licensed to Thrill.
It all fits with our news breaking story of the Sqaure Pie failure, which was picked up by The Times today and the poor performance of both The Eden Project and River Cottage, whose bonds are due for repayment soon. Dont you just love the way Crowdcube sidestep the important issues and continue to produce a constant stream of PR sludge.
Swamp out.
I like the way TSB has a tagline on the page listing cafes "Wherever you are in London or New York, we've got the best coffee for you!"
ReplyDeleteRight, so you're over in Dumbo or up in Queens. You're not going to go all the way to the single café on 40th are you?
This is what happens, when you take two guys with no financial experience and give them a FCA Licence. I think by the time this thing plays out, Crowdcube will have lost circa 300 Million of investors money or about 95% of all the money they have ever raised.
ReplyDeleteHowever, its not all bad, all this money deployed into the system is at least GDP positive - although long term, for UK PLc it is about as effective as paying people to run round in circles.
Unfortunately, when Crowdcube goes down, it will take a lot of supporting companies down with it, along with the hopes and dreams of many investors.
I do hope they survive. Easily the best coffee shop in Canary Wharf...
ReplyDelete