作得太大的關連交易....

2009年3月14日

轉貼: FT

Wrekin creditors hunt for £11m "ruby"

By Jonathan Guthrie, Enterprise Editor

Published: March 13 2009

An ordinary tale of business collapse has taken an extraordinary turn with the revelation that a medium-sized Shropshire construction business was the purported owner of an £11m ruby called “The Gem of Tanzania”.

When Wrekin Construction went into administration this week, directors lambasted the company’s bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, which is majority-owned by the government.

What has now come to light is a jaw-dropping note to the 2007 accounts of the civil engineer. This reported that Wrekin bought the ruby from shareholder Tamar Group for a “fair value” of £11m paid in interest-bearing preference shares. The transaction revived Wrekin’s parlous balance sheet, making it easier to stay in business.

The ruby would be one of the most valuable gems on the planet. Ernst & Young, the administrators of Wrekin, would therefore like to know where it is. So would Wrekin’s 80 creditors. Because these include RBS, every taxpayer in the country has a small indirect interest.

It is not known whether RBS’s decision to grant a £4.25m overdraft facility was influenced by the borrower’s ownership of the gem. The assets of builders rarely extend beyond hard hats and pneumatic drills.

Christie’s said the highest recorded price paid for a ruby was $3.6m (£2.6m) in 2006. Key directors of Wrekin were unavailable for comment on Friday. Their PR man had resigned in protest at not being paid.

David Unwin Jnr, managing director of Tamar Group, was available instead. He is the son of David Unwin Snr, ultimate owner of both Wrekin and Tamar. When asked “Where is the ruby?” he replied “no comment”, as he did to the inquiry “Does this ruby really exist?”

Note 13 of Wrekin’s 2007 accounts states: “The fair value of the ruby gemstone was determined by a professional valuer at the Instituto Gemmologico Italiano (sic) based in Valenza, Italy, on 31 August 2007.”

Loridana Prosperi, a gemmologist at the head office of the Istituto Gemmologico Italiano in Milan, said: “That is impossible, because we were on holiday on August 31 2007.”

She said IGI never assesses the price of gemstones, only the quality – and the Valenza office does not even do that.

Ms Prosperi said an £11m ruby would be equivalent to “The Black Prince”, a jewel the size of a chicken’s egg in the Queen’s crown. She said she would like to get a look at “The Gem of Tanzania”. She is not the only one.