quote from todays bulletin:
Charlton plc released a statement on Friday following a letter sent out to
shareholders without prior approval of the company.
"Over the past few days Charlton plc shareholders will have received a
letter from a company called Berkley Wyatt Ltd acting in conjunction with
Klein Group Ltd," it read.
"This letter has not been sent with either the knowledge or permission of
anyone connected with Charlton plc and we have instructed our lawyers to
write to both the above named companies to request they make clear to
shareholders they have no connection whatsoever with Charlton plc.
"A circular is being sent to all shareholders clearly disassociating us from
this correspondence."
Can ayone shed any light?
0
Comments
But I did do some research...they are based in Spain, despite the British name:
Berkley Wyatt Asset Limited, S.L. (www.bwasset.com & www.bwasset.es)
María Auxiliadora nº 5, Edificio Marbella-6, Planta Baja 29600, Marbella, Málaga, Spain,
Tel 0845 - 230 4554, Fax 0845 - 230 4664
They are not authorised by the FSA: http://www.fsa.gov.uk/firmcheckservice/index.html
It seems that Berkley Wyatt use an execution only broker called the Klein Group, which is more than likely under the same ownership (I don't have time to check). Klein group themselves are based in a tax haven island called ANJOUAN part of the Comoros islands in the Indian Ocean.
It would seem that they are a boiler room scam outfit - promoting highly volatile shares. That is they are likely sending this letter out having obtained a list of shareholders of CAFC in order to try and dupe you into buying shares in a company that they represent - that company/ies will likely have a grossly inflated balance sheet and likely will come saying that they are the "next" big thing, that the shares are about to rocket and you, yes you can get the inside track for once, how lucky that we chose you! The related scam is that the balance sheet will be genuine as will the company they represent, but the share price they sell you the shares at will be inflated way above current market prices - ie if say XYZ's shares are trading at 50p they'll sell you them at say 70p...If you receive such letters bin them.
The next stage is that you might get a telephone call, using high pressure sales techniques enticing you to buy shares or take their financial advice, if you do get a phone call do not accept it and similarly bin any further literature.
Sorry this may seem like I'm over-stating things but people can and do get conned very easily by these type of brokers.
I do not think that this means that CAFC are about to get taken over, they are just using the shareholders list of addresses.
Here are some quick rules of thumb to see if the broker that's calling you is a boiler room...
* The firm calls you from out of the blue, you've never spoken to them before and you have no legal contract with them.
* They're not based in the UK, although they may try to create the impression that they're based in the UK by using a UK telephone number.
* They're trying to sell shares in small unquoted companies that they claim will "IPO soon".
* They're not authorised by the FSA (they may even lie and tell you that they don't need to be or that it has been applied for, or even that they have FSA accreditation).
* They make extravagant claims that the shares that they're selling to you will double, triple or more in the near future. Probably they'll use an example of one last year that did, allegedly.
* They use high-pressure sales techniques.
* They try to sell you shares of US companies that are only listed in the "Pink sheets" or the OTCBB ("Over The Counter Bulletin Board").
* The shares are "reg-s", ie have restricted rights to sell for 12 months - that means that you won't be able to sell in this time frame, unless you take a massive financial hit.
* When you come to sell the shares you may find that if they are still in existence that the company's valuation will have fallen through the floor, or that you'll have trouble finding a broker to sell them, most won't bother with tin pot companies with low valautions.
* If the prospects of the company they represent were that good that wouldn't be using such a tactic to sell them, they wouldn't have to or more likely they'd be offered to the big boys first.