Solitaires / Peverel’s Online Feedback Manager – Andy, tried to explain the ownership structure of The Consensus Business Group, to allay any fears that we had in regards to the ‘relationships’ amongst Consensus Business Group companies.

I now want to attempt to answer Concerned & Matt’s questions regarding ownership structure.

Consensus Business Group (CBG) owns a large number of businesses in the property and technology sectors. A few years ago the Peverel Group of companies was purchased, and soon afterwards CBG asked Peverel to run their other property management businesses, including Solitaire Property Management.

We have been open about this and we have let everyone know of our plans to improve the Solitaire business and its communication with its customers.

Outside of the Peverel Group, CBG also own a number of businesses that purchase freeholds from developers and collect ground rent as result. It is quite common in the property industry for freeholds to be acquired by what is known as a SPE (Special Purchase Entity) or SPV (Special Purchase Vehicle). That’s why the group have a large number of companies such as Wenghold, the freehold owner of Concerned’s block.

Over time this creates what seems to be a complex company structure in terms of different names, but I want to reassure you that there is nothing sinister in the ownership.

Above, Andy mentions that apparently Peverel were asked to run their other property management businesses including Solitaire Property Management. Why did Peverel make it appear that they had taken over Solitaire and that the brand would now be Peverel?

He seems to not mention the fact that the Peverel brand was purchased by The Consensus Business Group in June 2007 and used to allow Mr Tchenguiz to obtain a fixed low rate of interest long-term income provided by assests owned by Peverel, from Merrill Lynch which provided the finance for the purchase of Peverel.

As the FT Report from June 2007 stated, that Peverel, which at the time owned some 57,000 UK property freeholds, offers a safe level of income for up to 125 years, and the inflation swap – which effectively fixes the rate of growth of the income over a period – enabling cash flow to be leveraged effectively.

Mr Tchenquiz, Chairman of CBG, said the company would then own a portfolio of 300,000 freeholds, with another 200,000 under management.

Mr Tchenquiz added “It also sets us up to substantially grow the operating businesses on the property management side and lead the market in services to developers”

Admittedly, the above is two years old, however, it gives a clear indication of what The Consensus Business Group has achieved via it’s separate guises.

Andy tries to make it appear that there is nothing sinister about the structure of the company / CBG? If that is the case, why is the company not ran by a single brand? Why do leases state Holdings & Management (Solitaire) Ltd, whom Estates & Management collect ground rent, etc on their behalf for? Wenghold is another example of this.

When residents have asked E&M whether there is a relationship between the companies, this is denied, despite Companies House records clearly stating that directors details include information of people that are on both the Peverel/Solitaire Directors list and E&M Directors.

So please – do not try to make it appear that your company have been completely open about these facts, because you / your company hasn’t! It has only been due to TheTruthAboutSolitaire, bringing your inter-company relationships to the public eye.

The reason why there isn’t a single brand is simple. A single brand would make it obvious that there was a monoply, separate brands disguise this – therefore, if you still believe that this isn’t sinister, then I’ll eat my keyboard!

Andy’s contributions to TheTruthAboutSolitaire of late have been very false and clearly only focused on trying to protect the brand of Peverel, at a time when you are frequently in the press and when people are clearly researching your company, for other resident experiences.

You may want to let your superiors know that once again – the BBC have been visiting TheTruthAboutSolitaire and are obviously researching your company again for yet another expose’ (hopefully!)