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THE 1200 seat Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre was almost full yesterday (8th May) with shared owners and owner/investors wanting to know why Ownerships was being placed into receivership and if anything could be salvaged from the mess.
The event had attracted media interest with BBC Look East (TV) arriving but not allowed into the hall. Indeed, the only Press allowed inside, at the previous invitation of OwnerShips directors, was narrowboatworld's Allan Richards, who is well known to both shared owners and management having been an owner within the scheme for six years and also a local manager.
Difficult
 It was always going to be a difficult meeting, writes Allan Richards. Following the death of OwnerShips founder Allen Mathews, Joan Lindeman inherited the company and called in her financial advisor, Anthony Trueman (pictured), to inspect the books. Prior to the meeting he announced ‘I have uncovered that Allen Matthews has systematically taken money from hundreds of owners on the pretence of the money being held on deposit, in the region of £1.8 million pounds. He has also taken money from individuals who believed in him, and he has used the sinking fund to regularly cover his trail.' He asked for questions in writing and an opportunity to explain. He also hinted at a way forward.
At the meeting, Joan Lindeman, a share owner within the scheme and now OwnerShips Managing Director gave a short speech full of emotion. However, it was Anthony Trueman that owners had come to hear.
Anthony Trueman
Now appointed OwnerShips Financial Director, Anthony Trueman had the uphill task of explaining to investors that they had probably lost everything in terms of money invested in the optional schemes. These included the Free Management Scheme (£2,500—£3,000), the Marina Investment Scheme (£2,500), various Buyback Insurance Schemes (investment variable) and the Fradley Boatyard Investment Scheme (£3,000). On top of that all owners may have lost the two sums of money paid on a yearly basis to OwnerShips, a management fee and sinking fund contribution.
The, perhaps badly named, sinking fund is the contribution that each owner pays at the start of the year towards upkeep of the boat and decreases (or sinks) towards zero by the end of the year. This is owners' money that should just be used to pay bills on boats. By rights it should have been ring fenced for each boat but was not.
A fairly detailed explanation was provided as to how all this money had been misused by Allen Mathews and lost.
Proposal
OwnerShips new financial director went on to explain the core business of maintaining over 100 narrowboats for syndicates of private owners was sound financially provided some efficiencies were made. However, it could not be hived off from the current business into a separate business and a new start must be made.
He proposed the formation of a new company, dubbed OwnerShips 2 by some, just running the core business, with total financial transparency and owners as shareholders. The shareholding was to be allocated in such a way as to reflect, as a percentage, the total loss of each owner through the various schemes instigated by Allen Mathews.
Mandate forms were given to owners present and will be sent to others. It is understood that if enough owners are in agreement then a formal proposal will be made
Questions
There were plenty of questions from the floor regarding both the collapse and the new company. At one time a queue of some 15 owners was waiting in a aisle. It seemed that most questions were answered to owners' satisfaction and, refreshingly, there was very little waffle.
A moment of light relief came when one very well known owner who others did not want to speak was slow hand clapped within seconds of taking the microphone and greeted with shouts of 'ask a question or get off'. He did, but not before throwing the microphone on the floor in temper!
Will it happen?
So will there be a mandate for new company? Certainly, in speaking to owners after the meeting there was general agreement that it would be given very serious consideration, and the thought of owners actually controlling the new company via shareholding was appealing. What is not known is what OwnerShips considers to be an economically viable number of boats.
Options
Ignoring owners' short term problems, they have three options. One is to sell the boat. Owners also have the option of a private (i.e. self managed) syndicate which may be of interest to longer established groups. For boats that wish to remain in the managed market companies are now coming forward offering services. These include BCBM, formed by Andrew Barton to provide a managed service after Challenger went into liquidation and ABC Leisure (better known to some as Alvechurch) who already provide services for shared ownership and timeshare boats.
What can be said is that, by offering shares to shared owners, OwnerShips wants to turn itself into the club that it has always purported to be. Certainly if it gets its mandate it will have raised the bar for the competition.
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