Report on
Freudmann Tipple International Ltd
This company was incepted on 19/4/2005 and according to Tony
he had been let go by Planestation in February 2005 5 months before
Planestation collapsed with debts exceeding £25 Million.
Tony had been appointed a director of London Manston Airport
PLC in 25/7/1997 where he oversaw the day to day running of Manston airport for
Wiggins PLC. He stayed in that role until 28/2/2005. The company has since been
dissolved. Wiggins itself became Planestation PLC and as stated collapsed with
debts. The airport was transferred to Infratil by the receiver in August 2005 for
a sum that was eventually written off.
Tony also was tasked with buying up disused airfields
abroad. These airfields had in common tracts of land within the boundary that
were suitable for housebuilding which was Wiggin’s main development forte.
From public announcements in 2003
“The Company's
preference in developing its network of airports has been to acquire the entire
interest at an airport. Nonetheless where opportunities present themselves the
Company could either take a minority shareholding or an operating concession,
such as that at Melbourne Airport, Florida.
The Directors believe
property development at the airports within the Planestation network to be
strategically important. Accordingly the Group focuses on airports which either
have landside areas available as development land or alternatively adjacent
land which may be acquired for development. The Group also focuses on sites
where development funding is expected to be available from outside sources, in
particular grants from Government, the European Union or other public sector
bodies.
In August 1999, the
Company completed its acquisition of London Manston Airport, since which time
it has expanded its portfolio of interests in airports considerably to include
airport services. These airport operations are to be included within the
Planestation brand.
In 2001, the Group
acquired the two strategically placed airports in Germany at Schwerin-Parchim
(now Baltic Airport Schwerin-Parchim) and at Lahr, in the Black Forest. It has
also secured interests in the smaller regional airports of Odense, Denmark in
April 2000, and Cuneo in Northern Italy in February 2001. LineAE airport in
Pilsen, Czech Republic was acquired in August 2000.
Most recently the
Group has entered into an agreement to develop international air traffic at
Melbourne airport in Florida.
To finance the initial
projected cash outflows from airport operations and acquisitions the Company
increased its net borrowings primarily through borrowing from the Mezzanine
Lenders.”
His colleague at LMA Plc Paul Howard Tipple was appointed a
director on 29/7/2003 and resigned on 31/3/2005. Paul’s directorship was short
lived at FT Int Ltd as he resigned on the 4/4/2007 after being a founding
director.
Attached at Appendix
A is Freudmann’s CV however it is unknown as to whether he earnt monies
whilst asset stripping these dissolved companies. All that is known is that
after he left Planestation he set up Freudmann Tipple International Ltd and
each set of accounts is included on this report. FT International’s accounts
are the bare minimum Balance sheet reported to Companies House and to not
include a profit and loss report however the end of year balance sheet seems to
show that annually they carried forward losses to 30/9/2008 then a positive
balance as debts accrued have been paid off. In 2010 to 2012 it remains a
positive then the debts started building again. In the accounts ending March
2013 a “loan” of over £20K is paid to Tony leading to a run of negative results
and by March 2016 this had accrued to -£73101.
This all changed with the formation of Riveroak Operations
and the use of Freudmann Tipple to hold monies for RO and it seems collect payment
for providing services. All debts were wiped off and a positive balance for the
last 3 years. With this change comes a Corporation tax bill shown on the
accounts and assuming a Corp tax rate of 19% Tony’s company has achieved a
pre-tax profit at March 2017 of £154K, at March 2018 of £214K and at March 2019
of £282K.
At the same time at year end TF International held RO monies
of £176146, £ 214136 and £282378 respectively. One might ask why an
organisation which has allegedly spent £38M on Manston needs to use Freudmann
Tipple International Ltd to pay their bills.
The accounts such as they are will be found at appendix C
Tipple’s resignation is at Appendix D
FOI to KCC at Appendix
E
Courtesy of Herne Bay Matters
TONY FREUDMANN CV
1946 Born Wrexham
North Wales
1964 – 1967 LSE
- Law (LLB)
1967 – 1982 Legal
Practice (Commercial Law). This includes 9 years as a Deputy District Judge
N.B. The title District Judge did not come in to being until
2000. There were stipendiary Magistrates so whether he was a stipe or not isn’t
clear. His claim to have been a DDJ for 9 years means that when appointed he
would have only had 4 years Post Qualification Experience on appointment. The
requisite for a Stipe as per DDJ was a minimum 7 years PQE and then very
unusual.
1982 – 1989 Shropshire
County Council - Leader
The info regarding TF's 'early years' comes from various
statements that he has made. However he was apparently working for the
Shrewsbury firm Wace, Morgan & Salt in 1986 as he was dealing with the
probate of one Daphne Newman
1989 Founded a
consultancy “Advising public authorities on accessing structural funding from
the EU”
1994 Joins Wiggins
as Senior Vice President (Wiggins is a land management and property development
company formerly Southend Sand & Gravel Co founded in 1948)
1999 Wiggins buy
Kent International Airport Ltd
Other Wiggin’s airports while Freudmann was responsible for
airport acquisition:
Odense, Denmark - 2000 Local Authority running the airport
enter joint venture with Planestation. Local Authority end agreement
essentially on breach of contract seeking $1.7 m. This was arbitrated down to
$850,000 re unpaid rent.
Pilsen, Czech Republic - 2000 takes on lease from Czech
MoD. $279 million deal with Bae to
redevelop as commercial airport. This does not seem to have got very far and
the local operating company PlaneStation Pilsen was sold to Babcock Brown on
the demise of the parent company. Eventually in 2013 the MoD terminated the
agreement on basis of breach of contract.
Lahr Airport - A history of failure. Sold to Babcock &
Brown when Planestation enter voluntary liquidation.
Schwerin Parkim, Northern Germany - Didn’t pay the rent.
Kicked out Feb 2005 and settled for 3 million Euro.
Cuneo, Levaldigi, Italy - Take 43% stake in airport 2001.
Withdraw having made heavy losses 2004, despite heavy funding from the Italian
Government to develop the airport.
Ajman, UAE - Grand $800 million project to build airport (a
scheme seen in the industry as bizarre) is abandoned in 2003
Borgond (Alba), Hungary - June 2004 Contracts with local
authority for joint investment. A year later Planestation goes under without
any significant work commencing.
Smyrna, USA - June 1999 Announce ambitious proposals for
this joint military / civilian airport which is going to be their corporate HQ.
Withdraw from project 2003 citing issues re the expansion of the runway which
was strongly opposed locally.
Melbourne, Florida USA - June 2004 Sights set on this
airport to replace Smyrna as US base. Deal would involve considerable funding
from local and federal governments. The project is in development when
Planestation go under.
All of the above were former or existing military bases,
targeted because “ideal airports are former military bases with ample
availability of surrounding land which can be developed using the real estate
experience of Wiggins”
2004 Wiggins
Group PLC becomes Planestation PLC
2005 Feb Ousted
from Planestation PLC.
“Tony Freudmann also had the following to say regarding
personal accusations thrown at him “I was responsible for Manston’s conversion
to a civilian airport, building it up as a cargo airport and then being ‘let
go’ when I protested that the EUJet plan made no economic sense.””
Martin May was brought in to try and save Planestation. Says
May in Sept 2004:
‘When I first arrived here I realised that the commercial
“vision” of the previous management was merely vapour.
“When I came here, we were spending money to no particular
end. Last year, we spent £11 million maintaining dormant airports. The previous
year, £13.5 million. It wasn’t too hard to work out that revenue generation
built on a scalable business model was what was needed.
Ever the pragmatist, May acknowledges much remains to be
done. ‘I am a sensible businessman. I’m taking one step at a time. The board
here has collective goals and every individual employee here has personal
goals. We are still not profitable but the days when this company was an
acquirer of assets and a stealer of ideas is over. Our target is to be cash
neutral by March next year. I intend to make it.’ “
2005 Apr Founds
Freudmann Tipple International Ltd (He always refers to this as FT
International Ltd. This in fact is a footwear company in Surrey with no
connection to Freudmann). Is this the same Tipple who was CEO at Manston?
2005 July Banks
pull the plug on Planestation PLC / EU Jet. Enter Infratil
2007 FTI
provides consultancy services to Infratil working on a route from Manston to
Norfolk, Virginia. This doesn’t get off the ground.
2009 March Becomes
a Director of Active Energy Active Energy Ltd founded as a subsidiary of Steven
Freudmann’s Cinpart. Cinpart having 65% Equity, 10% Alpha Prospects (TF &
SF) with 25% of Equity to Steven Coombs who as SDC Industries manufactures
VoltageMaster Energy saving devices.
2011 Sept FTI
still trading. KCC pays fees of £4000 for APTC Staff.
2012 Feb Founds
SDCI Ltd with Nadav Zohar (Believed to be related to the above energy saving
businesses) No accounts filed.
2012 June Working
with Integeral Investments (Directors Sanjeev Joshi & Darin Soards who
appear again in negotiations with Anne Gloag re Manston. One of the Investors
is the notorious Douglas Maggs) Integeral is already insolvent when agreement
reached with the local authorities in Lahr to run the Black Forest Airport,
previously run by Wiggins / Planestation.
2013 Jan Integeral
wound up.
2013 Feb still
representing a now non-existent ‘Integeral’ in negotiations at Lahr.
2013 June Forms
Annax Aviation and Annax Aviation Airports, registering these companies at the
address of former Lahr investor, Douglas Maggs.
2013 July Annax
enters the tendering process to run Lahr. Bid is unsuccessful.
2014 Jan
Makes enquiries re the potential for house building on the Northern Grass at
Manston Airport
2014 29 Jan
Annax in negotiation to purchase Manston from Gloag. Heads of Agreement signed.
Falls through. (Likely fronting for Integeral team)
2014 24 March Sir
Roger Gale announces that a consortium is desirous to purchase Manston from
Anne Gloag. (Very likely TF and Integeral)
2014 27 March Letter
of Offer made by the consortium
2014 2 Apr Offer
withdrawn by consortium
2014 4 May Fronts
RiverOak LLC bid to purchase Airport from AG.
2014 28 May Founds
Dublin Registered Company AA Leasing Partners Limited (Aviation leasing,
Aircraft dismantling, parts)
Some of the acquisitions were direct whilst others were made
through Alpha Consolidations Ltd and Alpha Prospects PLC. His foray into the
Travel Industry is inextricably linked with his younger brother Steven
Freudmann who has been involved in the travel industry from the founding in
1967 of Majestic Travel. He was a director of ABTA for 18 years and its
President between 1997-2000. He resigned
his Directorship after calls to do so from creditors of Seligo / Unpackaged and
rather than face awkward questions from the board re the collapse of and
involvement in, the Unpackaged Group run by Tony and Alpha Prospects (Stevens
baby as well).
Tony’s first acquisition would seem to have been in March
2007 acquiring Carefree Travel 22/3/07 and Radiant Travel 22/3/07, also Travel
Club of Upminster, (founded in 1936) Upminster Travel, Austria Travel 19/1/09,
Majestic Travel (Steven Freudmann’s company) 6/2/09 and Seligo Holidays
23/2/2009.
Useful summary from Travel Trade Gazette
• Steven
Freudmann is a director of Alpha Prospects, a plc listed on the junior Plus
stock market and set up in 2008 to invest in travel companies.
• His
brother Tony Freudmann was a director of Unpackaged Holidays Ltd of which
Seligo was a trading name.
• Tony
Freudmann is also a director of The Travel Club, the company which bought the
assets of Unpackaged Holidays.
• Tony
Freudmann is also a director of Unpackaged’s parent company, UHN Ltd, of which
Alpha Prospects has an option to acquire.
• Tony
Freudmann is also a director of Seligo Holidays Ltd, which was set up in
February and could now become the trade arm of The Travel Club.
• Alpha
Prospects also has an option to acquire Alpha Consolidations Ltd, which owns
The Travel Club Ltd.
Net result of TF’s
involvement in Travel Industry was the rapid demise of a number of long
established operators. None of the
travel companies seems to have survived
Lists of Companies he has been or is currently a Director
of:-
Appendix B
Planestation: turnaround from hell
Losses of £73
million, an ousted management team and huge overheads are just three of the
factors that have plagued airports and property group Planestation – yet one
entrepreneur is aiming to make the business profitable.
Date: 01 September 2004
Article: Analysis
Losses of £73 million, an ousted management team and huge
overheads are just three of the factors that have plagued airports and property
group Planestation – yet one entrepreneur is now aiming to make the business
profitable.
'I don’t think I’ve got an easy job, that’s for sure,’ is
how Martin May, one of the UK’s foremost turnaround practitioners, describes
the task before him at troubled airports and property group Planestation.
To anyone who has a passing knowledge of this group, his
comments will smack of extreme understatement, because, up till now,
Planestation has been one of the most woeful ventures ever to grace the London
Stock Exchange.
Over the past ten years the group, previously known as
Wiggins, has raised more money – north of around £115 million – than its actual
market valuation. With this cash it built up an international chain of seven
(hitherto largely dormant) airports and an assortment of property interests and
assets in the UK. Apart from property disposals, it has generated little in the
way of revenues, milked its investor base for all they were worth and produced
gargantuan annual losses – in the past 48 months alone it has lost more than
£73 million.
The group was only saved from complete collapse at the turn
of the year when no less than £46 million was raised from City institutions to
repay an almost equal amount of mezzanine finance that was accruing interest at
28 per cent (yes, we’re not lying, twenty-eight per cent!). After this
fundraising, chief executive Oliver Iny walked the plank. He was shortly
followed by the chairman, Richard Bernays and non-executive director Lady Rona
Delves Broughton.
Knowledge is
strength
Even for May, who has engineered a few spectacular
turnarounds over the past ten years, transforming Planestation into a proper
business represents something of a special task. But he exudes charm and calm
in equal measure and says he is ‘excited’, not perturbed, by the challenge
ahead.
‘I know my strengths and weaknesses, as all chief executives
should. I am not good at business development, I am not a specialist in any
particular sector. What I am good at is fixing things.’
Fixing things is indeed his forte. Since leaving a global
packaging specialist in the late 90s May has worked wonders at a very diverse
selection of companies. Among his most successful commercial reinventions has
been Gresham Computing, where he transformed the loss-making, indebted venture
into a profitable re-financed concern within six months.
His most recent project has been Cape, where he is still
chairman. He joined in June 2002 after it had leaked so much cash its shares
had bombed and debts were topping £50 million. Now, it is trading profitably,
its debts are negligible and, in response, the shares have soared tenfold.
A meticulous
12-month plan
Says May, ‘in distressed business you meet many similar
problems. There are always immediate cash concerns, the incumbent management
are very often “blockers” of change, margins are weak and staff morale is
non-existent.
’When I come on board I engender a 12-month time- and
task-orientated plan to get the ship afloat. It’s about real business goals,
revenue generation and management inspiration.’
For May, the first quarter in his standard recovery plan is
all about ‘stopping unnecessary spending immediately’. He also identifies
non-core assets that can be off-loaded for much needed cash.
The next three months is then about establishing ‘short-term
corporate and financial goals’ to ensure that by the third quarter ‘management
changes are in place and a temporary platform built to start developing a
viable future strategy’. The last three months of his first year is then
devoted to ‘really making a step change to take the business forward’.
Hard medicine
The first six months at Planestation have, by and large,
followed this philosophy to the letter. ‘When I first arrived here I realised
that the commercial “vision” of the previous management was merely vapour. Like
many failing concerns, it was truly a lifestyle business. It was full of
hobbies.’
To reinforce the point he highlights the fact that annual
head office costs were no less than £7.8 million. This figure included the
£600,000 it cost to lease Planestation’s wonderfully indulgent Georgian offices
on London’s grandiose Berkeley Square. Head office costs have been slashed and
the group has relocated to a small space at the back of the building. The rest
is being sub-let.
Another ‘pet project’ he put to the sword was the previous
management’s hare-brained attempt to build a 1.4-mile-long grandstand (designed
by leading signature architect Lord Foster) at its property site in East
London. This was part of its overall plan to build a ‘London City Racecourse’.
Says May, ‘A total of £2.8 million was spent on this design, which,
unsurprisingly, failed to get planning permission.’
Beyond
cost-cutting
On the finance front, a £5 million cash injection was
completed recently, with most of the new investors being tempted in by May’s
new realism and much progress has been made on the actual business.
Of the group’s seven airports, three have been designated
core and revenues are at last beginning to tumble in.
At Kent International, Planestation’s flagship asset,
passenger services are finally up and running following the launch of Europe’s
newest airline, EUJet. Planestation invested £2 million for a 30 per cent stake
in this airline. Two planes are operating, and the plan is to have seven on the
go by next year. The other major development at this site was the final
completion of a Border Inspection Post (one of only eight in the UK). This, it
is hoped, will become a serious destination for those shipping fresh produce and
other cargo into the UK.
At the group’s Lahr airport in Germany’s Black Forest,
charter flights are landing and taking off and plans are afoot to increase
cargo capacity. Over in the US, Planestation’s plans to take holiday-makers
from the UK and Europe to Florida are developing rapidly.
Property solutions
As for its property division, May is in negotiations to sell
the group’s residential property interests in Liverpool. Many now reckon that
due to his patience, he is likely to reel in more than the £9 million
previously mooted by analysts. In Oxfordshire, a future residential development
is at the planning stage and in East London, a revised (and more sensible)
proposal for a racetrack has been resubmitted. £30 million, say commentators,
is what could be raised over the short- to medium-term from three-to-four
sites.
Says May, ‘When I came here, we were spending money to no
particular end. Last year, we spent £11 million maintaining dormant airports.
The previous year, £13.5 million. It wasn’t too hard to work out that revenue
generation built on a scalable business model was what was needed.’
Ever the pragmatist, May acknowledges much remains to be
done. ‘I am a sensible businessman. I’m taking one step at a time. The board
here has collective goals and every individual employee here has personal
goals. We are still not profitable but the days when this company was an
acquirer of assets and a stealer of ideas is over. Our target is to be cash
neutral by March next year. I intend to make it.’
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
Dear Kent County Council,
Tony Freudmann was paid by Kent County Council for his
consultancy work on Manston Airport on the following dates
Invoice Amount Date
· 101/3 £11,456.25 24/10/2005
· 101/6 £9,106.25 04/01/2006
· 101/9 £5,245.63 12/03/2006
· 101/10 £6,102.69 09/04/2006
· 101/15 £4,626.56 14/08/2006
· 101/2 £29,081.25 09/09/2006
· 101/16 £6,431.75 05/10/2006
· 101/17 £7,635.26 01/11/2006
· 101/50 £5,299.43 06/12/2006
· 101/19 £14,633.24 08/12/2006
· 101/26 £7,887.74 03/01/2007
· 101/25 £17,379.59 07/02/2007
· 101/29 £9,944.19 11/03/2007
· 101/37 £4,800.00 01/07/2007
· 101/1 £6,462.50 01/08/2007
· 101/58 £12,126.00 17/05/2008
· 101/68 £6,049.40 23/09/2008
· 101/82 £11,646.00 13/02/2009
Could I have copies of any reports associated with these
payments or any other relevant correspondence associated with them
Yours faithfully,
Totals £176K
KCC’s response
