The Mauritian Financial Services Commission cancelled Caldora’s global business licence and its licence to operate collective investment schemes on Monday. It also cancelled the licences of Caldora International Fund PCC.
Both companies have been ordered to initiate the necessary actions for the orderly dissolution of their businesses.
The Caldora funds came to prominence in 2013 when the group’s international equity fund, which was launched in February of that year, suspended redemption requests in July due to “the illiquid nature of the securities” within the fund.
Connections
One of the company’s directors at the time, Peter Simmons, wrote to investors saying: “The investment manager has been unable to meet all redemption requests and the board has therefore resolved to suspend the cell for a further 30-day period.”
Another director of the Caldora fund was Neal Davies. who was involved in the establishment of Dubai-based financial intermediary firm ECS Insurance Brokers LLC in 2009, which operated under the name of Elite in the UAE.
Illiquid assets
According to data from FE, the Caldora fund’s units fell 32.7% from their launch in February to the suspension of redemptions on 5 August 2013 – this compared very unfavourably with a 15.26% positive return for the international equity sector in which it sat at that time.
The move by the Mauritian authorities to close Caldora follows its announcement late last month that it had suspended the licence for fund manager Belvedere.
Belvedere’s suspension followed a series of regulatory investigations and actions against Belvedere-linked funds in other parts of the world over the past couple of years including in the Cayman Islands, Guernsey as well as Mauritius.
At one point Caldora Asset Management shared the same office address as Belvedere Management in Mauritius.
