SMI wound up for fraud

SMI (Overseas) Ltd, a company set-up with the intention of helping investors build property portfolios in Spain and Turkey has been wound up by the High Court after an investigation revealed that the company appeared to be fraudulent.

SMI (Overseas) Ltd, which is based in Stamford, Lincolnshire, lured investors by convincing them that they could build enormous international property portfolios within emerging overseas property markets.

However an investigation conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry found that despite taking money from investors, there was no evidence that any properties had been purchased by the company.

Back in May this year, two similar companies, Sterling Mansion (UK) Limited and Mansion Investments Limited were also wound up.

New Bric funds may attract British investors

The emerging property markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China have all attracted enormous attention from investors in recent years because of extraordinary levels of capital appreciation.

However investing in these markets has so far been very tricky for most UK investors. That may however be set to change with the news that at least three fund management groups could be set to launch Bric funds which could be opened up to UK investors.

Allianz Global Investors, US group Franklin Templeton and HSBC are all assessing investor appetite for such a product.