Independent Research Share Discussion Threads

[fft] 18/4/2012 01:03

Just had a letter from Nat West saying that my holding in IIR is worthless.

I never realised !! :-)

[scrapheap] 11/4/2011 08:47

Note - I obviously had to write to them to confirm the loss was now claimable.

[scrapheap] 11/4/2011 08:46

HMRC has already confirmed the capital loss in writing for my holding in IIR.

[system5] 10/4/2011 15:51

Risk Assesor

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to post the letter from Shane Smith, which I will copy to Barclays Stockbrokers for their information

It certainly helps to explain why the company is being struck off and, if one accepts Shane Smith's assertion that the value of the assets being removed from the Company is no greater than the loan he provided to the Company, I would agree that the striking off is probably the most appropriate course of action, given that the Company has no assets and is no longer listed

I will assume that when the Company has finally been dissolved, my capital loss will have crystallised and I will be free to set it off against my future capital gains

Thanks again

S5

[lord gnome] 02/3/2011 23:15

Presumably the only difference between having the company 'liquidated' or 'dissolved' is the amount of cold water which gets poured over us shareholders!

[risk assesor] 01/3/2011 09:31

sorry took a while to get it but this is what a friend of mine received , not sure it helps you but there you go !!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To all shareholders and loan note holders



London, November 22nd 2010


Dear Shareholder,

I am disappointed to have to tell you that the board of the company has determined that as a result of a number of events, three operating subsidiaries (Pronet Analytics.com Limited, Independent Financial Markets Research Limited and Independent Research Pvt. Limited) are no longer viable. The board convened a meeting on November 10 2010 for the purpose of appointing a liquidator for a voluntary liquidation. All staff in the group have now been made redundant.

Those of you who have followed us closely since 2000 will recognize that we have struggled. More details addressing the background to this unhappy outcome are provided below, and I am writing to you today also to request any feedback or comments you may wish to make concerning our proposals for winding down the parent company.

Independent International Investment Research Plc has no other operating companies. All of the tangible assets were held by the subsidiaries and these (mainly desktop PC's) will be sold by the liquidator. The intellectual property assets, meanwhile, were provided as security for funding that I provided personally to the company earlier this year as we attempted to bridge a difficult period. Regrettably these assets have delivered little value, with or without a team of professionals to execute business.

Together with three former staff, I now intend to pursue a business activity which uses some of the intellectual property assets (notably the Irideus.org website and domain) – productively and profitably, at some point in the future, we hope. There are no revenues associated with these assets. Significant new investment will be required (£1mm) which we have no certainty of obtaining.

We also propose to acquire from the group one of the dormant companies (Irideus Limited). Similarly, no revenues are associated with this company or its services. The company has four arrangements in place with suppliers, but no clients.

If you wish to make any comment on these plans, may I please invite you to do so within the next seven days.

The result will be that IIR will become a shell company. Whilst it could be liquidated, the practitioner dealing with the subsidiaries has suggested that to save costs, we may wish to simply allow the company to be dissolved. I have personally funded the orderly liquidation of the three operating companies and cannot fund the liquidation of IIR. However should any shareholder or group of shareholders wish to do so, this option can be adopted. Again I would welcome your views in the next seven days.

Background and recent events
The IIR Group was founded in 1996 and was admitted to AIM in 2000 with a placing that raised approximately £4.6mm. There have been no subsequent public/institutional fundraisings. The original business was technical research on FX and commodities and the Group's business plan ran immediately into the challenges presented by the tech meltdown in 2000 and subsequent economic down turn. Attainment of breakeven required a number of strategy changes and took much longer than anticipated for the original fundraising. For the whole of the last decade, the Group has been under-funded but in recent years began a substantial positive trend in net earnings. Whilst still vulnerable, however, in terms of cash reserves, the Group has been impacted by three related events which it has proved impossible to survive.

Amongst the milestone challenges we have faced,

 In 2004 the Group had to begin long and costly legal proceedings to protect core intellectual property that was being infringed by a much larger company. This was a significant drain on resources.
 When the original technology built in 2000 to deliver our technical research platform needed substantial new investment around 2006, funds were not available and this product was necessarily discontinued.
 The Group began an initiative with a leading stock exchange in 2006 which took much longer than expected to reach market, in 2009.
 This initiative launched in very difficult conditions in March 2009. Adding to the problem, one of the three partner research providers failed to meet expectations for sales and marketing support, undermining the efforts and success of the others.
 The Group's IPO research service was withdrawn when the IPO pipeline evaporated in the credit crisis. Re-launched in January this year, it was successfully building a client base but too slowly.
 The Group's advertising-supported research model, Research Oracle, took longer to reach market than planned and didn't build a critical mass audience by the time revenues from the Global Research Settlement were winding down, requiring the Group to scale back substantially on published content.
 Our nomad withdrew from the market, and we were required to replace this adviser at short notice.
 A dysfunctional relationship with the replacement nomad which sapped our resources at a crucial time, and the costs of remaining listed, determined that we de-listed from AIM. This allowed us to focus on the business, conserved cash and extended our runway, but negatively impacted on the Group's ability to raise new equity funding during a rare window, and has made further funding harder to access.
 The change in the US regulatory environment that came with end of the Global Research Settlement in July 2009 reduced our revenues by 75%
 A contract with a client signed earlier this year had been expected to extend substantially in scale by now, but in practice despite great efforts from the dedicated team the first phase has proved problematic and with significantly less margin than expected.

Most recently,

 The Group's external web development firm effectively went into melt-down, leaving us without support at a crucial time.
 Our campaign to engage with several hundred prospective funders over the summer months met with little success, due to the state of the private equity and VC sector, our size, and the unlisted nature of our shares. However by the end of September, the due diligence stage had begun with several potential investors.
 Our funding proposition to these prospective investors was based in part on the expected conclusion of a 10-month negotiation with a major investment bank, for a significant number of licences of our Capital Connections product. The bank unexpectedly terminated this negotiation on 30 September, citing reduced flexibility in the context of a difficult year in equity capital markets.
 Our inability to demonstrate progress in this negotiation led to our bankers declining to provide arranged working capital facilities, which were contingent on this progress
 As a consequence of the impact on our solvency our current largest client terminated their contract.

Thank you for your support over the years. Please do contact me if you would like to discuss any aspect in greater detail.

Best,

Shane Smith
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Independent International Investment Research Plc
[e-mail]

v: [phone] f: [phone] m: [phone]


these are his new details

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shane Smith
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Asia Century Capital Limited Group:
International Capital Connections Limited
& Irideus.org, the Intermediated Research Initiative

[e-mail]

Cell: [phone] Skype: shanesmithiiir Fax: [phone]

[system5] 21/2/2011 12:19

According to the Company's file at Companies House, there is a proposal to strike the company off the register

I hold my shares through Barclays Stockbrokers but they tell me that they have not received any communication from the Company

I shall be grateful if any shareholder, who holds a share certificate, could confirm by reference to the Company No. 03882401 that we are indeed talking about our Company

In addition, if they have received any communication from the Company, I shall be grateful if they will post a summary together with any contact details for the Company

I set out the extract from the Company's file below:


Name & Registered Office:
INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT RESEARCH PLC
24 LOCK KEEPERS HEIGHTS
BRUNSWICK QUAY
LONDON
ENGLAND
SE16 7PW
Company No. 03882401


Status: Active - Proposal to Strike off
Date of Incorporation: 24/11/1999

Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Company Type: Public Limited Company
Nature of Business (SIC(03)):
7487 - Other business activities
Accounting Reference Date: 28/02
Last Accounts Made Up To: 28/02/2009 (GROUP)
Next Accounts Due: 31/08/2010 OVERDUE
Last Return Made Up To: 24/11/2009
Next Return Due: 22/12/2010 OVERDUE


Barclays Stockbrokers are investigating the matter on my behalf and I will post any information that I receive from them

Thank you in advance

S5

[fatso] 11/2/2011 00:36

I lost 42 grand. Lucky you all.
Still- there might be a life in this corpse, after all?
I have written to the Co's registrars requesting change of address
as I hold shares certificate.
Hope for a morsel of information coming my way, sometime.

[scrapheap] 10/2/2011 21:12

add a nought and then double it...

[fatso] 09/2/2011 19:40

can you clarify, chaps?
I have changed my domicile address 3 months ago and have not bothered
to inform the Co registrars.

[fatfish] 09/2/2011 18:43

i take it regardless of who owns us now we still get sweet fa.??

[lord gnome] 09/2/2011 17:34

Who they? I've tried a search on google and only come up with London based phone companies. Does the name Renwick Haddow appear anywhere?

[risk assesor] 09/2/2011 17:23

so now owned by capital connections!!!

[costapacket] 10/12/2010 16:24

I got excited when I saw this - where's my money I thought.

The whole thing here was a fiasco. I'll frame it alongside Brent Walker and Envesta Telecom as three very expensive mistakes among others.

[scrapheap] 10/12/2010 16:20

if only you could ebay CGT losses!!!

[fft] 09/12/2010 00:35

i had mine via email. It was a PDF file.

did you register on their site for updates ? I seem to recall i did a few years ago.

[scrapheap] 08/12/2010 23:23

We're fxcked.


Seriously though, it was addressed to s/ders and loan note holders so everyone should have been sent it shouldn't they? Surprised they have the money for the postage mind you given what it says...

[scrapheap] 08/12/2010 14:29

got a letter from SS today saying it's game over really

[lord gnome] 08/12/2010 12:54

Good money after bad? He'll be lucky!

[fft] 08/12/2010 10:41

did anyone else get the email yesterday from Bob Mennie ?

claims he doesnt have enough money to buy a bag of chips and would like a whip round. i exagerate a bit, but it didnt sound great...