EEA investors to take 36% hit

Investors with run-off shares in the ill-fated EEA Life Settlements fund are projected to lose more than a third of the value of their investment by the time all shares are redeemed, the coordinator of the EEA Investors’ Group told International Adviser.

|

Hot on the heels of news that EEA investors are due to get $15.1m (£10.9m, €12.2m) in the first run-off redemption since April 2017, coordinator David Trinkwon explained that the payments relate to around 127,000 shares.

“This represents approximately 4.8% of the 2.8 million run-off shares trapped in the fund since the suspension in 2011 and restructuring in 2014.”

Trinkwon said that it “brings the total run-off redemption payments since 2011 to $214m and leaves 1.1 million run-off shares still to be redeemed over the next five to seven years, at a current value of $148m”.

“The eventual projected loss for all the ‘trapped’ run-off investors is $206m, a 36% loss when compared with the $568m valuation at suspension.”

He said the latest redemption reflects the low number of policy maturities during 2017, with none so far in 2018.

Losses in the sterling, euro and Swedish krone shares will vary depending on their respective currency fluctuations against the US dollar since 2011, he added.

EEA Life Settlements

The EEA fund was suspended in 2011 after the then-UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority, warned retail investors not to invest in what it controversially described as “death bonds”.

After the Guernsey Financial Services Commission approved a restructure in 2014, the shares wee divided into continuing shares for those wishing to remain in the fund and run-off shares for those wanting out.

Trinkwon has been an active voice in promoting the rights of EEA investors. In December, he issued a warning to holders of more than 870,000 shares who had not acted to stop their funds from potentially being automatically reinvested in similar products.

MORE ARTICLES ON