Profitable Plots

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#31
Sounds like Profitable Plots... if it is so good, why is it being offered to retail investors...

Who wants to buy land in US oil boom town?

American developer markets stakes in raw land, promising returns two years later
Published on May 4, 2014 1:26 AM


North Dakota's Williams county, which houses Williston, saw a 10.7 per cent rise in residents last July from the year before. The increase is the fastest in the United States, outstripping the national average of below 1 per cent. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

By Tee Zhuo

Singapore investors looking overseas as the local property market cools have a new opportunity.

A massive development site in the US half the size of Toa Payoh is being offered to investors by American developer Citation Capital.

NorthStar Centre, a 216ha mixed-used site in the oil boom town of Williston, North Dakota, was launched in March.

Unlike purchasing a condo unit, buyers are putting their money into raw, undeveloped - but zoned - land under what is called "undivided interest", where each investor has a share in the whole plot based on the amounts they originally invested.

The returns come only two years down the track when the land is sold to smaller developers and firms which will add the infrastructure for commercial, residential and retail uses.

Even so, the project is being marketed as a "no-brainer" investment with a clear exit strategy, citing an undersupply of amenities and housing and high demand from workers streaming into North Dakota owing to the oil boom.

According to a Financial Times article in March, North Dakota produces about a million barrels of oil a day and accounts for nearly a third of US energy output growth since 2009. The state's economy expanded by 13.4 per cent in 2012.

Housing and infrastructure have been struggling to keep up with the sudden growth in population, with an explosion caused by the derailment of a train transporting crude oil in December last year raising safety concerns.

North Dakota's Williams county, which houses Williston, saw a 10.7 per cent rise in residents last July from the year before. The increase is the fastest in the United States, outstripping the national average of below 1 per cent.

Projected gains of up to 26 per cent at the end of two years were advertised with a relatively low barrier to entry of only a minimum investment of $10,000.

About 46 per cent of the site is being offered in Asia, with the rest reserved for private funds in the US.

It is the fourth time this year that the project has held launches in Singapore, the only Asian market the developer has entered.

Mr Tin Chew, managing director of Citation Capital Asia, a unit of the US developer, said it was a marketing strategy.

"We are confident in Singapore, and the Singapore market is big enough," he added.

The marketing tactics seem to have worked.

Six of the parcels have already been closed. While the total number and average size of the parcels were not disclosed, the two parcels offered at the latest launch were about 4ha each.

But Mr Simon Ong, 60, a Singaporean who attended the launch, was not fully convinced. He pointed out that the two-year holding period is "a bit too long".

"The property is in a foreign country, by a foreign developer. How do we know if they're not just telling us stories?"

Other buyers The Sunday Times spoke to expressed similar sentiments, highlighting the project's local marketing partner, Shenton Wealth Holdings.

The firm was in the spotlight last year after being placed on the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) Investor Alert List.

The list comprises unregulated entities which "may have been wrongly perceived as being licensed or authorised by MAS", said the central bank's website.

Shenton Wealth, which specialises in bringing foreign investment opportunities to Singapore, later clarified that "being placed on the list does not necessarily mean Shenton Wealth has breached any of the MAS's regulations".

The firm has declined to comment further.

A Singaporean finance professional in her late 40s, who wished to be known only as Jane, was not deterred. She invested $50,000 in the NorthStar project, and said a friend had invested up to $200,000 for a stake in the site.

"Any investment always has some minimal risk. Whether it has been regulated by the MAS does not really make any investment a better or safer one," she said.

teezhuo@sph.com.sg
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#32
"Any investment always has some minimal risk. Whether it has been regulated by the MAS does not really make any investment a better or safer one," she said.

The logic is foul. It does make it higher risk in probability. Good luck to her and her friend.

"Profitable Plots, Sunshine Empire and Genneva all have one thing in common: they are listed on the MAS' Investor Alert list but were, nevertheless, allowed to operate until the authorities moved in at a later date, after more investors had invested their hard-earned money. "

http://ifonlysingaporeans.blogspot.tw/20...teria.html

Just my Diary
corylogics.blogspot.com/


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#33
I guess as a finance professional at 40s, she should have some salt worth.

"It is the fourth time this year that the project has held launches in Singapore, the only Asian market the developer has entered" sound like sg is an easy porous target
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#34
It will be interesting if we can have breakdown of the occupation of victims in gold scam.

Just my Diary
corylogics.blogspot.com/


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#35
"It is the fourth time this year that the project has held launches in Singapore, the only Asian market the developer has entered" sound like sg is an easy porous target" - pianist,

easy, porous target sounds scary... :O
1) Try NOT to LOSE money!
2) Do NOT SELL in BEAR, BUY-BUY-BUY! invest in managements/companies that does the same!
3) CASH in hand is KING in BEAR! 
4) In BULL, SELL-SELL-SELL! 
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#36
As usual, if it is too good to be true, it most likely is.
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#37
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/...l-20140610

PUBLISHED JUNE 10, 2014

Two Profitable Plots directors get jail
Judge finds third director had no role in making false representations to investors

TWO of three directors of land-banking firm Profitable Plots were yesterday jailed for conspiring to cheat investors in a bond scam that involved losses of some $3 million. For cheating 18 investors, Timothy Nicholas Goldring, 60, was sentenced to a seven-year term, and John Andrew Nordmann, 55, eight years.
The two Britons, who could each have been jailed up to 10 years on each count, have indicated that they intend to appeal against the conviction and the sentence. A third director, Geraldine Anthony Thomas, Nordmann's wife, was acquitted of the 18 charges following the 64-day joint trial.
The prosecution stood down a further 68 charges for each of the three. These will be dealt with later. A pre-trial conference has been fixed for July 7.
The court heard that investors lost $3.1 million in the Boron scheme between November 2008 and August 2010. This scheme involved using investors' money to finance the purchase of the Boron CLS Bond.
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#38
The way I see it:
1. Profitable plots has a cash flow problems caused by money owes to investors in a separate land banking scheme.

2. PP set up a shell coy in Dubai to bear the contractural obligations of a scheme called Boron scheme
a. $$$ invested will be used exclusively for the purchase of boron products
b. the product had been pre-sold to major corporations

3. In reality, the $$$ was largely used for PP expenses and the boron product was never pre-sold.

Heart LC


Earth day - save the world everyday.
感恩 26 April 2019 Straco AGM ppt  https://valuebuddies.com/thread-2915-pos...#pid152450
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#39
^^^ I wouldn't define that as a "cashflow problem" as in liquidity issue per se if "the $$$ was largely used for PP expenses and the boron product was never pre-sold" Smile
Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give. –William A. Ward

Think Asset-Business-Structure (ABS)
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#40
(10-06-2014, 11:23 AM)specuvestor Wrote: ^^^ I wouldn't define that as a "cashflow problem" Smile

Very sharp!
There are 3 sides to this story:

PP argue that they are not able to meet "contractual obligation".

The prosecutors called it a Ponzi Scheme.

The judge decided it's a false representation.

Heart LC
Live with Passion, Lead with Compassion
2013-06-16
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