| HARROP, LEES, BROWN & Co. Formerly Saddleworth Union Bank |
- Introduction
Harrop, Lees, Brown & Co. (the "Firm") advises corporations at all stages of their development. It
encourages private or institutional funding and operational alliances. The Firm has experience in the
structuring of young or distressed companies during corporate transition processes such as positioning,
design, incubation, validation, stock-exchange listings, share placements, privatisations, and bankruptcy
reorganisations.
- History
The Firm’s activities developed in the mid-1700’s in the north of England and Scotland. The Firm’s location
allowed it to participate fully in the innovative period that would lead to the Industrial Revolution. The area had
sheep-farming, fast streams to drive the mills, ample labour, and access to ports with regular global
connections. Investment syndicates sponsored by the Firm built some of the earliest spinning and weaving
mills in Lancashire and Yorkshire (textiles have always been central to the Firm’s activities). The Firm then
developed outwards from its textile holdings, adding banking in the late 1700’s. Banking activities operated
under the name Saddleworth Union Bank. The Bank failed in 1826 due to the American cotton famine. Its
debts were subsequently paid off by the Firm. The Napoleonic blockade in the early 1800’s forced the Firm to
diversify geographically. After the withdrawal of the Lees and Brown families, and replacement of the original
Harrops by other branches of the Harrop family, the Firm soon had agents and bureaus in the Maghreb
(Tangier), the Levant (Istanbul, Iskenderun, Damascus, Baghdad, Basra, Cairo, Khartoum), the Balkans
(Belgrade, Sofia, Bucharest, Sibiu, Sevastopol), along the northern and southern silk routes to Boukhara,
Samarkand and Kashgar, in India (Bombay, Calcutta) and in West Africa (Accra). Operating some of the
largest textile mills in the Black Sea area, the Firm for many years ran its own train between Istanbul,
Bucharest, Moscow and later to the central Asian cotton-growing areas. During the first and second world
wars, members of the Firm were active in diplomatic and intelligence missions throughout the Balkans,
central Asia and the Levant. However, at the Yalta conference, all of the Firm’s industrial assets were ceded
to Soviet control by Britain and the US. Ironically, members of the Firm had helped organise the conference.
After this major setback, the Firm moved its operations to neutral Turkey in 1942, Italy and Switzerland in
1945 and Spain in 1955. In the 1980’s the Firm re-activated its activities in the Balkans, then east to China
again. The Firm went on-line in 1981, sent its first e-mail over a public system in 1982, financed Geneva's
first T-1 equipped Arabic internet centre at Geneva's Hilton in 1996, and the first T-1 equipped Russian
centre in 1997. Today it functions on an ad hoc project-team basis, wherever its project companies are active.
- Selecting project companies
The Firm is a long-term value contributor and seeks project companies that have the following
characteristics:
- Hidden value
- Improvable share liquidity
- Positioned in a nascent trend or able to create a new market
- Potential to own their niche
- Sales growth influenceable by innovation
- Provocative profile to stimulate alliances and licenses
- Strong margins to compensate for management error
Alternatively companies may have historical, technical, artistic, or societal characteristics that make them
meritworthy.
- Investment manner, governance and social compliance
The Firm has no short-term profit requirement, aiming for strategic returns at 10 year maturities. The Firm
may take a management position during early-stage or critical transitional phases of its project companies,
but generally avoids operations management.
All entrepreneurial or restructured companies, without exception, start well and have much promise, then go
through phases of crisis, then re-emerge strengthened by the experiences, or alternatively require re-
structuring. The Firm advises its project companies during these threatening phases that are essential to
later sustained growth. The Firm is particularly open to pre- and post-bankruptcy asset acquisition and
salvage.
The Firm provides shareholders with a number of platforms for obtaining as much information as they need
from the companies. Investors should read warnings and disclaimers in SEC and other regulatory filings
before investing.
The Firm encourages companies to have online forums. There are extra information links at these forums.
Shareholder questions are answered in the forums within the limits of fair disclosure regulations.
Share prices, price-charts, market-maker bids/offers, regulatory filings, aggregated information on officers,
directors and insiders, company profiles and news-wires can be found at most financial websites, or on
national stock-market sites, or can be accessed via links at project company websites.
Information on SEC regulations, securities acts, and insider rules can be found on the SEC site and at most
financial sites.
Accustomed to operating and maintaining friendly and respectful relationships across the whole cultural and
political spectrum, the Firm constantly reviews its operations for compatibility with western and Asian social
and religious precepts.
The Firm continuously communicates with a broad network of asset managers, funds, holding companies,
foundations, trusts, banks, and other shareholders of its project companies. The Firm may retain outside
management, design, production, marketing, banking, legal, accounting, audit, and stock-brokerage
specialists in various territories.
Important notice: The Firm does not provide financial services to the general public, such as investment
advice or deposit taking or stock-brokerage. As a private entity handling its own interests, it is neither
authorised nor licensed as a financial company in any territory. Its liaison agents serve only to supervise its
own activities.
- Management
The Firm is not incorporated. If investment is required, this is organised through separate corporate entities.
Economic and social activities are co-ordinated by an ad hoc secretary. Contributors are co-opted on a
project-team basis when needed.
- Projects
Since the second world war, the Firm has advised projects in Europe, Asia, and the Americas in the following
areas: textiles, remote surveillance, data compression algorithms for storage, DVRs, IP/VOIP and wireless
licenses, enterprise and web integration software, software retailing, TV shows about the net, pre-built
housing and real estate developments, hotels and restaurants, armour, drones, mass-transit, 3D surface
colouring and imaging processes, luminescent surfacing and imaging, watches, forestry, mining, farming,
food-processing, vineyards, retail distribution, environmental clean-up, fashion and luxury goods,
internet/iPDA systems, sports products, human resource consulting, executive health and fitness, pharma
and hygiene, helmets and pilot-equipment, remote retail point-of-sale electronics, entrepreneurial centres for
delinquents, pet-supplies, entertainment stores, business centers, sports team management, new sports
and products, historic replica workshops and art restoration, house & garden services, environmental
services, energy and power generation, language-learning systems, media and entertainment, venture
cafés, venture education, enterprise modelling, travelling venture workshops for cities and out-placement,
entrepreneurial analysis for investment banks and funds in various countries.
- Warnings
This brochure constitutes neither a recommendation nor an endorsement of any company, nor an invitation
to participate in any situation, financially or otherwise. Investors should not invest anywhere unless they can
easily afford to lose their entire investment. The Firm's affiliates or business relations may at all times have
interests in companies, some being pure financial investments, some being strategic investments where
the Firm is visibly involved, some being small preparatory investments where the position assists in tracking
a company's behavioural patterns. The Firm is at all times informally researching private and listed
companies, both for itself and in liaison with third parties. This involves unsecured exchanges of information,
hypothetical deal scenarios and site visits. However in keeping with regulatory guidelines, if the Firm enters
formal discussions with a company, there is an announcement. If there is no such announcement, there is
no meaningful involvement. Investors should be wary of companies, websites, media or sales groups that
attempt to create links between the Firm and themselves or other entities. The Firm and its partners, being
systematic value advisors specialised in re-structuring and preparing special situations prior to the
involvement of others, are routinely named in litigation, bankruptcies, and judicial procedures in the course of
their normal business, often accompanied by unfavourable media attention (the Firm's long-term strategic
objectives for a situation may not be aligned with the short-term interests of company management, other
shareholders, suppliers or competitors). Investors may at any time contact the Firm for confirmation of any
subject at info@HLBCVentures.com. The Firm and its affiliates are not authorised financial advisers in any
territory. The Firm does not give investment advice to, nor take deposits from, members of the general public.
This document is not a source of investment advice. Nothing here may be construed as investment advice or
as an invitation or inducement to invest in any situation where the Firm or its affiliates may be involved.
Readers should always consult a licensed financial adviser in their relevant territory or regulatory
environment prior to making any decision about anything. This prospectus you are reading may not be the
latest version and may have been changed significantly since its previous versions. The Firm reserves the
right to change any published or draft materials without notice at any time, and without updating previous
versions of the materials or websites. For enquiries on any subject or personal or employment questions,
please email the Firm or the appropriate project company.
| THIS BROCHURE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN INVITATION TO INVEST CETTE BROCHURE NE CONSTITUE PAS UNE INVITATION A INVESTIR Content may change at any time without notice. This version may not be the latest version. No copies may be made of any material without permission. Original text 1980. Following years copyright. Contact: info@harrop.info |
