By Andrew Batt:
It is business as usual for two property investment companies, Dolphin Capital Asia and Shenton Wealth Holdings, which were placed on the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Investor Alert list late last week for falsely claiming they were regulated by MAS.
Both companies said they have now taken steps to correct the errors which lead to their listing.
Vicknesh R Pillay, Managing Director Dolphin Capital Asia, told PropertyGuru: “The MAS Alert List is created to educate the market on investments which aren’t regulated by the MAS. This does not mean that the investment is any more or less safe, or that we have contravened any law; this just indicates that this type of investment is not regulated by MAS.”
Dolphin Capital Asia functions as an operations office for its German counterparts, Dolphin Capital GmbH, with the investment opportunities being marketed by companies in Singapore.
Pillay said: “Through our findings we believe that one of the agencies marketing the investment opportunity had misrepresented the company by claiming that we are a regulated entity. We were surprised to be added onto the list and have therefore inserted a disclaimer into our webpage and information leaflets to state that we are not regulated by the MAS.”
He added that Dolphin Capital Asia has offices in Japan and Malaysia, and works with institutional investors in other regions. Taiwanese institutional investors recently invested US$34 million in projects in Augsburg and Mainz, he noted.
“We have a strong track record of successfully exited projects, and indeed many investors have visited the projects in Germany at various points in their lifecycle. We have always been prompt with the disbursement of profits to investors and we look forward to continue delivering results to our valued investors,” he said.
A spokesperson for Shenton Wealth Holdings told PropertyGuru: “Being placed on the Investor Alert List does not imply any wrongdoing by Shenton Wealth. According to the MAS, Shenton Wealth was placed on the list ‘to alert consumers to the fact that Shenton Wealth is not regulated by MAS, and that if they chose to deal with Shenton Wealth, they would not have protection under the laws administered by MAS.’”
The spokesperson added that the Investor Alert List is a list of ‘unregulated persons who may have been wrongly perceived as being licensed or authorised by MAS. Such persons include those who do not conduct regulated financial services, but have been mistaken by the public to be regulated by MAS’.
“We have excellent track record and payments have always been prompt to investors," the spokesperson confirmed.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg
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