Will Grupeer blow up or fix their issues?
Will Grupeer blow up or fix their issues?
Recently some bloggers have been asking questions to Grupeer - about their projects, partners and buyback guarantees. But they have been scratching only the surface, and I expect that in next couple of weeks Grupeer will have a full blown PR crisis. So what are the important questions that have not been asked yet?
Well, first let’s start with info we have. The guy that really has triggered a deeper look into Grupeer is Bernhard. He did a lot of interviews and asked many interesting questions, and it was clear that Alla was not able to provide satisfactory answers.
Update 31.03.2020: after Grupeer problems were revealed, Bernhard removed videos
And there is another blogger - Ido Shkedi, who tried to dig a bit as well: Grupeer – Questions and Answers, but both of them have not done enough due diligence.
What have they missed?
Missing questions
1. Grupper Limited
Looks like a report was supposed to be filled till January 30th, still not done 2 months later. Is there any problem?
2. Grupeer CEO and founder owns nothing?
In October 2018 Grupeer CEO was Andrejs and he was also mentioned in Bernhard interview as the main person, idea owner etc., but why does he own 0% shares in his own company?
3. Primo Invest “owner“/CEO owns nothing?
The same question about SIA Primo Invest - Grupeer has funded €23 331 108.43 worth of loans to this company, but it's CEO (and in interviews - also said to be owner) Harijs Egle owns 0% shares of this company. Why?
4. Primo Invest - no pledge on assets?
In Grupeer website, it is said that there are no pledges on assets. So there is no collateral if anything goes wrong in case of Primo Invest?
So 23 million invested in unsecured loans, but BuyBack Guarantee is provided? With what? 2800 EUR that is invested in Primo Invest share capital? That would cover about 0.012%.
If that is a mistake or there are any guarantees or pledges, is it possible to verify that by seeing documents or checking online registers?
At least in Lursoft - it looks like there are no pledges or collaterals:
5. Latvian investors not allowed?
It looks like almost anyone can invest in Grupeer - people from Japan, Israel, Kazakstan and most of Europe, even Lithuania and Estonia - 2 of 3 Baltic countries, but not Latvia?! Grupeer is operating from Latvia, but not allowing Latvian investors?
Key takeaways
Grupeer looks like TFG Crowd on steroids - funding their own projects in exotic countries (Belarusia), but with real owners/managers having 0% shares in the companies, so also - no responsibility if anything goes wrong.
Not clear if investors have any protection at all and if these real estate developments are real and owned by the Loan Originators?
I hope that Bernhard will get answers to these questions as well and I expect that either Grupeer will become lot more transparent or shut down, but in any case - they will have a big PR crisis to manage, so it will be a tough time both for them and their investors.
Update 31.03.2020
Grupeer has blown up.
P.S. Join “High-risk investments“ Telegram group for an informal discussion.