Mr Lee is still pushing for a deal with South Canterbury Finance, involving preference shares in SCF, and options on SCF ordinary shares. SCF preference shares are trading at 36c in the dollar today.
Is it just me or has Mr Lee lost his marbles? His proposal seems more outlandish and unlikely every day. I'm sure his truck-load of grey haired clients relied on him to warn them about the risk of whether, for example, the following strategy was at high risk of failure:
It [strategic finance] assumed banking liquidity and investor confidence would recover sufficiently to see projects like Soho, Fiji, Albany and Bendemere (Lake Hayes) up and running.
Strategic foresaw market recovery; in fact the market for land, tourism, and office development is still deteriorating, not improving. It is going from worse to worser, as my little sister used to say of my art work.
4 comments:
Has Chris Lee declared how much of investor money he has tied up in these companies if any.
No wonder Chris Lee sounds desperate - he IS desperate.
According to NZ Herald, this is what his firm was telling clients less than 2 months before Strategic went under :
"But advice from staff at Chris Lee Sharebroking of Marine Parade at Paraparaumu Beach convinced him to renew, resulting in a big financial loss and poor prospects of getting his money back.
Chris Lee, the managing director, wrote to Crone six months before it went into moratorium, saying Strategic "remains one of our preferred providers and their rates are competitive given the reinvestment bonus offered. We rate Strategic as an A-. Strategic has a very high liquidity, an investment grade rating, low bad debts and is well-placed to withstand the difficult conditions in financial markets," Lee wrote on June 13, 2008, in a letter signed by Edward Lee.
Strategic defaulted on August 7, 2008."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10633708&pnum=2
Any thoughts on whether his clients should sue his firm?
If you compare those facts with the facts reported in the article copied here http://www.lostsoulblog.com/2010/01/how-faltering-financial-institutions.html it appears Mr Lee was cheerleading funds into Strategic while other, more informed investors, were pulling out. Mr Lee proclaims himself to be an informed adviser, but from the little I have seen of his approach to Strategic and SCF, he appears to have been cheerleading for these companies fundraising efforts while others correctly saw trouble coming. Investors would be better informed by watching movements of money than taking advice from Mr Lee. You might have a chance to sue him, but it depends on the circumstances, e.g. if he put 100% of your portfolio in Strategic at that time you could probably succeed.
Chris Lee wouldn't know a good deal if it hit him in the head!
He preys on retirees in marginal areas such as Kapiti. The sooner he is out of the financial industry the better New Zealanders will be. Clown!
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