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Whenever I read a news item reporting the fall of a fine wine investment company, mostly in London from where Decanter is published, I hum dispassionately the line ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ from the well-known single released in 1980 by the English rock band Queen that had a Mumbai-born lead singer, the late Freddy Mercury. I also hope that none of the gullible investors was from India or a subscriber of delWine, who had been convinced into parting cash with the lure of high return on the investment.
I have been approached by many fine wine investors to join hands with them from India and I regret politely to be a part of any such scheme. There are a few Non-Resident Indians who live in Europe and have their investment companies and seem to be people of integrity and high financial standards. But when people seek our advice, we tell them that there are two more points to consider- the amount of fake wines in this segment of collectible wines-the recent case of over $20 million swindled by the Master Counterfeiter, Rudy Kurniawan (reported extensively by delWine), sends chills through the veins for those who bought wines from him or through auctions.
The high volatility in this segment with almost a free-fall in the price of recent high quality vintages due to the receding purchases by China is another reason for the investors to worry about-surely companies like Encarta must have been unwilling victims of the piquant situation - our viewpoint as validated by Decanter.
Nedim Ailyan of the liquidating company reportedly says that the directors have blamed the collapse on their bank, HSBC, freezing their banking facilities for four months. 'Because of concerns about the level of commodity fraud I believe that the Financial Conduct Authority has been asking banks to investigate commodity asset investment companies that might have suspicious transactions,’ he says, adding 'Although I have already seen this happen with companies selling other commodities, this is the first time this is said to have happened to a wine investment company.' Apparently Encarta’s banking facilities were frozen earlier this year and then unfrozen once the investigation was completed.
Hopefully, none of our readers has been a victim of the situation created by this troubled company in which case, you may want to open a bottle of bubbly and enjoy the song ‘Another one Bites the Dust’.
Subhash Arora
Tags: Encarta Fine Wines Ltd, Rudy Kurniawan |