LORD ROTHSCHILD INVESTS IN BULLIONVAULT
June 22nd, 2010WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
That’s it for me. I’m finished promoting BullionVault for use by Cryptogon readers. I know that many of you have substantial holdings with BullionVault. In fact, Cryptogon readers have deposited just over US$2 million with BullionVault. It’s not that I see any imminent threat to your holdings from this, but it simply doesn’t pass my smell test.
“Lord” Jacob Rothschild doesn’t have my best interests in mind. And if you’re reading this site, he probably doesn’t have your best interests in mind either. (These are polite understatements.)
I’m not suggesting that you should stay with BullionVault, or not stay with BullionVault. What I’m stating, clearly and for the record, is that I’m no longer going to promote BullionVault for use by Cryptogon readers.
Via: Telegraph:
An investment fund backed by Lord Rothschild has joined the World Gold Council to put £12.5m into BullionVault, the online gold investment platform.
Tim Levene of Augmentum Capital, a fund backed by Lord Rothschild’s RIT Capital Partners, said the investment was not a bet on the gold price but on “the future growth of the BullionVault platform”, which stores physical gold for private clients in London, New York and Zurich. RIT currently has 9pc of its assets in physical gold.
Investment demand for the metal has risen on concerns that sovereign debt problems could spread and the value of currencies plunge. The gold price hit a new nominal all-time high above $1,260 on Friday and analysts expect the price will continue to rise.
In return for the £12.5m investment, the World Gold Council and Augmentum will receive an equity stake in BullionVault.
Marcus Grubb, managing director of investment at the World Gold Council, said taking the BullionVault stake was part of the Council’s strategy of “increasing its portfolio of successful platforms for gold investment”. Mr Levine and Mr Grubb will join BullionVault’s board.
BullionVault has about $800m (£540m) of gold under management for 20,000 customers from more than 90 countries. The average holding is around £30,000.
The World Gold Council’s previous investment vehicle, a gold exchange-traded fund, now has 1,306 tonnes of the metal under management, worth $52.3bn. This makes it the world’s second-largest exchange-traded fund. If the fund was a central bank, it would be sixth largest in the league table of gold holders.
—
Email from BullionVault Director, Paul Tustain
Dear BullionVault user,
You may have seen this story in today’s Daily Telegraph:
http://bit.ly/c4uQJA
We are delighted to welcome the World Gold Council and Augmentum
Capital, which is backed by Rothschild Investment Trust, as minority
investors in BullionVault.
The outlook for long-term growth in physical gold demand is
considerable. BullionVault now has two additional and knowledgeable
investors to help us progress the safe and profitable expansion of
our service.
** The World Gold Council (WGC) **
The WGC is a true global force in gold. Founded 23 years ago,
its mandate is to promote the marketing of physical bullion. It
is owned by 15 of the world’s largest gold mines, who between them
are responsible for about 60% of world gold-mining output.
For many years the WGC has also been the main producer of gold-market
research, data and analysis. It brings a significant amount of
marketing clout to BullionVault. You can visit the WGC’s website
here:
http://www.gold.org/
** Augmentum Capital (AC) **
Augmentum is one of Jacob, Lord Rothschild’s investment vehicles. He
is, as you may know, one of London’s pre-eminent financiers of
the last 30 years, controlling Rothschild Investment Trust Capital
Management. It has £1.6 billion ($2.4bn) under management, and has
set up AC with a specific focus on technology businesses like ours.
Run by Tim Levene – who led the Asian and European development of
peer-to-peer betting exchange Betfair – AC has just one client,
which is Rothschild Investment Trust. The Rothschild family name
has of course long been associated with gold, going back to the
Napoleonic era.
The World Gold Council and Augmentum Capital are, quite simply,
the most suitable investors BullionVault could wish for.
** BullionVault’s Management **
As equal parties in this new investment, worth £12.5 million
($18.5m), both Tim Levene of AC and Marcus Grubb, Managing
Director of Investment at the WGC, are joining me on the Board
at BullionVault.
** How Will This Investment Affect You? **
This is not an exit, either for myself or indeed for any
existing shareholder. I remain the Chief Executive and the
major shareholder. Together with everyone here at BullionVault,
I continue to be dedicated to providing you with secure, low-cost
and transparent access to physical gold & silver bullion.
This investment by the World Gold Council and Augmentum will in due
course enhance the BullionVault service, providing greater depth to
the BullionVault market and a broader choice of trading currencies
and vaulting locations.
Kind regards,
Paul Tustain
Founder & CEO, BullionVault
I have no fatih in the electronic universe. Too fragile and subject to sunspot activity. So my only investments in funny moey are my pension (NOT TO SMALL and not under my control) and things with Mom’s name still on them.
I am pretty much resigned to the idea that my retirement savings with the .gov are a goner.
My parents were born in 1910 and 1917, aand woah did I get an earful about the great Depression. Always being on the side of the ledger where people owed you money was Dad’s last lecture that I remember when I was up to my ear’s in credit card debt. My sister bailed me out, and after paying her back, except for a brief while last year, I kept some restraint.
Right about now, if I were a Buillion Vault investor I’d be asking for some physical delivery. If you have 1/2 million invested, ask for physical delivery of half of it. Test their system. This is surely bad juju if the Rothschilds are spreading their ooze of comfort and joy about what a gtreat place Bullion Vault is. But that’s just me. I have no trust in the electronic universe…and then there’s that old Christmas cartoon of Scrooge and that song, “jingle, jingle, coins when they mingle, make such a Happy sound.”
Wealth in gold coins is highly concealable and portable. Right now five Krugerands are worth over $5k. Smaller than a size of a quarter. Think about it. But not long.
I want to add that LOVE, food, water and shelter are the prime objectives. Not money.
It would be a” good thing” to pass on some of the wealth stored up to future generations. Not for power, but for substance, But what will be will be. I’m going to teach myself how to play chess. A long and compicated “game” that wil amuse me whilst the lights go out.
I am also particularly fond of Scrabble.
Well…bully for you, Kevin. Thanks for
walking your talk. Again.
Now that you’re out, I can say without
concern for stepping on toes that while
I went into BV solely on your recommendation,
I found their payment/transfer operations
EXTREMELY clunky, and at one point, they
held a cash-out check for months. MONTHS.
I was a penny-ante, small-time customer with
routine banking. Maybe that was the problem.
Dunno. Don’t care.
I yanked the account months ago, and never
regretted it.
Thanks, again, for being straight up about this.
i tend to agree with your conclusions, kevin.
Thank you RMOHANX for commenting.
I imagine that Kevin is being hammered by his close friends and colleagues as to what to do with Buillion Vault.
Like you, I hold Kevin close to my heart because of his integrity. Yes, I liked what you said about walking the talk. Kevin has been true through and through hasn’t he?
I am sure he is busy right now. Helping friends and supporters decide what to do with BV.
My prayers are with Kevin.
There are few people in this universe that I know of that I strive to emulate. Kevin is one of them.
Surely, the god/desss is with him for being a straight arrow.
@Eileen:
chess is not complicated and if you are not careful it can be embarrassingly short. the beauty of chess imho is its simplicity and the freedom that gives you to choose your own strategy or counter-strategy. and adopt your own “style” of play. btw, i was a total chess nut from age 11-15.