Silverjet saviour's companies show late filing and losses
By Alistair Osborne
Last Updated:
1:08am BST 12/06/2008
The businessman fronting the proposed rescue of business class-only airline Silverjet is a director of late-filing companies, whose most recent venture has left investors nursing heavy losses.
Ian Ilsley, 59, is a director of Kingplace, the Ireland-registered company that is hammering out final terms of Silverjet's rescue with administrator Begbies Traynor.
Mr Ilsley also chairs a Geneva trust and management company, Heritage Cie SA, that manages Kingplace, whose offer is being made on behalf of undisclosed private clients.
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Kingplace intends to relaunch Silverjet, which flew from Luton to Dubai and New York, within the next few weeks and is working with the carrier's chief executive, Lawrence Hunt.
Monaco-based Mr Ilsley is most recently known to UK investors as the chairman and finance director of Sandhaven Resources, an Irish-registered company formed to acquire and develop oil and gas assets.
It is registered on the Plus Markets junior exchange, where its shares have collapsed from around 175p a year ago to 34½p yesterday, valuing the group at £24.3m. Sandhaven made €74,000 losses (£58,600) in its most recent half year.
On May 30, Sandhaven said its full-year results, due to be announced that day, were "still being finalised by the company's auditors". They are now due by Friday - when Kingplace plans to complete the Silverjet deal.
When Sandhaven began trading on Plus in May 2007, Mr Ilsley's current UK directorships were listed as BASE Management (UK), Garnham & Co Management (UK), Marine and Aviation Services, Napier Properties, TNTC, Tulah Yachts and Yachting Ventures.
Companies House searches show that BASE and Yachting Ventures each have shareholder funds of only £2, while Napier is dormant and Tulah has never filed accounts, which like BASE's are now overdue.
This from Daily Telegraph today - hope it all goes OK for the company!
Matt.