Asia News : Walton International closes local ops

PETALING JAYA: Walton International Property Group (M) Sdn Bhd (WIPG), which attracted controversy when it was raided and probed by Bank Negara three years ago, has closed down its offices here.

WIPG’s parent company, the Walton International Group, informed its agents and investors in Malaysia of the decision last Monday citing “restructuring of its Asia operations” as the reason for it, a statement dated June 24 that went unnoticed said. The statement said that Malaysian investors would now be serviced out of Walton’s Singapore office. It also assured investors that their investments were sound.

Walton is a Canada-based real estate investment firm that is involved in pre-development land investing. It buys huge landbank in major urban growth areas in North America and divides the land into smaller units, enabling retail investors to participate in institutional-style investments in pre-development lands. The local unit, WIPG, was set up in 2002 and has 12,000 Malaysian investors.

It has been reported that the minimum investment for each unit, which is less than 0.1ha, is US$10,000 (RM32,000). Assuming that each local investor would have committed to this minimum investment, local investors collectively would have at the very least invested some RM384mil in the land-banking scheme. Industry observers, however, reckoned that Malaysians would have invested far higher than this.


WIPG made news in 2010 when its offices in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching were raided under the Exchange Control Act 1953 by Bank Negara, after complaints from the public on land-banking schemes promoted by it. The company was subsequently fined RM385,000 for dealing with foreign currency without the permission of the regulators.

A Walton International spokesperson when contacted said the move to close down the Malaysian offices followed a decision to revamp its Asia operations in Singapore and Hong Kong. “Walton’s Singapore office will serve clients in South-East Asia countries while the Hong Kong office will serve clients in North Asia,” she said, adding that between 2008 and 2009, Walton had also reduced its number of offices in Canada from seven to two. In 2011, it closed down its Tokyo office with Japanese clients now served out of Hong Kong.

Walton currently manages over C$3.7bil (RM11.1bil) in assets. Last year it returned over C$1bil (RM3bil) in distributions to its clients, the statement said.

(Source : TheStar)

Comments from Author:

If the investment from Walton International is so promising, why not they just listed the company? Why they keep it as private?

Think before you invest ! If you're good, nobody will probe you ;) 

Walton International Land Banking SCAM?

Walton International Group clarifies Bank Negara probe
Monday, 09 March 2009 19:53
KUALA LUMPUR: Walton International Property Group (M) Sdn Bhd said on March 9 that it does not distribute real estate investment trusts (REITS), nor does it offer deposit-taking or interest schemes.
It said that it offered clients the opportunity to purchase ownership of high-quality land in highly-researched and carefully-selected growth areas within Canada and the US.
“Walton’s Malaysian clients hold legal title to the North American lands that they own, safely and securely registered in the respective jurisdictions. Over Walton’s 30-year history, almost 50,000 clients worldwide have purchased more than 49,000 acres of land, a total of nearly RM 6 billion worth of land,” it said.
The statement was issued after Bank Negara raided the group’s offices in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching on March 5 under the Exchange Control Act (ECA) 1953.
The central bank had stated the raids were carried out simultaneously following complaints received from members of the public.
Bank Negara had also seized relevant documents from the company for investigation. The central bank had on March 6 also advised the public to be cautious of this type of land banking schemes promoted by the company.
“Any elements of deposit-taking activities and public offerings such as ‘interest schemes’ or investment in real estates schemes (REITs) should be referred to the appropriate authorities such as Bank Negara Malaysia, Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia and Suruhanjaya Sekuriti,” it added.
Walton said it did not consciously or deliberately contravened any laws in the countries in which it operateds. It also assured its clients, employees, partners and the Malaysian public that it was cooperating fully with Bank Negara to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.
“Walton operates to the highest ethical and business standards, here in Malaysia and around the world,” said Walton Asia chief operating officer Kent Britton.
“In Malaysia, as elsewhere, we are committed to positive relationships with our valued clients and with the citizens and governments of the countries in which we do business.”
He said Walton was fully open and transparent in its professional relationships with regulatory authorities, and responsive to requests for information and cooperation.

Bank Negara raids Walton offices

BANK Negara Thursday raided Walton International Property Group (M) Sdn Bhd following complaints from the public on land banking schemes promoted by the company.
The central bank said in a statement yesterday that the raids were simultaneously conducted at the premises of the company in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.
It advises the public to be cautious of this type of land banking schemes promoted by Walton.
“Any elements of deposit-taking activities and public offerings such as interest schemes or investment in real estate schemes should be referred to the appropriate authorities such as Bank Negara, Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia and Securities Commission,” it says. — Bernama



Canada Land Banking Investment
- The Land Banking is very high risk investment, and so far, i haven't see any good performance from this investment. If you google "Walton International SCAM or EdgeWorth Property Pte Ltd?" @google.com, you will be able to see many complaints @investment forum. Just be careful when land banking investment agent approach you.

- For me, if you want to invest Land Banking, you should buy IJM Land, SP Setia, Mah Sing Group and etc. This is a real business, which is managed by High Quality Managment Team.

EDGEWORTH PROPERTIES SINGAPORE, MALAYSIA, PHILIPPINES - CANADA : FAT LIARS

Land investment cum Development

Edgeworth Properties / Edgeworth Ventures / Edgeworth Mortgage Investment Corporation
Edgeworth Properties Inc.
5500 North Service Road
Suite 106
Burlington, On L7L 6W6
CA
http://www.edgeworth.com/


Edgeworth Properties had branches in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines & Taiwan. It was set up as a so-called development-banking company. It prided itself as a better company than its other Canadian competitor (which Edgeworth copied), by saying that Walton was merely a landbanking company, while Edgeworth a developer.
It sourced land in most of western Canada. Sold units of land in the form of Undivided Interests to Asians in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and tried briefly to establish in Taiwan.
Between 2007 to 2011, the company had sold 12 pieces of raw lands through its Asian offices, affecting investors of over 3,000 people, of which a vast 60% from Singapore, 30% Malaysia and the rest in the Philippines (with perhaps very little from Taiwan). Total losses from investors in this region is hovering in the region of Canadian Dollars $73 million / Singapore Dollars $94 million / Ringgit Malaysia $232 million.
Between 3rd and 4th quarters of 2010, Edgeworth had announced its upcoming maturity in 2011, involving 3 maturities. The first would be in June 2011. Canadian Tax forms were filled out by investors of these 3 so-called "maturing" projects.
The bomb was dropped on all investors in June 2011, when the country manager came announcing that the company Edgeworth had "no money", giving excuses that the "economic crisis" had affected them and a bad director in Canada tried to take-over (hence lost money fighting that director).
The Chairman at the time was Donald G. Hurst. The Country Managers in Singapore, Leslie Ng, resigned prior to the "bomb shell" being dropped on investors. So did the Vice President of Asia Pacific at the time, Michael Yap. He was replaced by Edwin Neo, who proudly claimed to have great experiences in landbanking company Walton. In Malaysia, even a sadder case. Its country manager, Lee Kim Haw, used distorted facts to get more investors to buy into Edgeworth's investment. How did he do that? He told investors that following SSM's investigation (end of 2008)/ release of edgeworth properties malaysia (July 2009), a trustee account was set up with cimb bank. He claimed that no money would be sent out of malaysia without any ownership title is received by investors. You guessed it: the money did not stay in Malaysia. If it had stayed in Malaysia, all projects' money collected from sales after July 2009, would be safe. Whose fault? The Malaysian authorities? The country manager?
The sad thing was, in Malaysia, many people were not aware of the situation. The country manager went on to "encourage" his consultants to sell with a newly launched project. He even sent out updates of Edgeworth Properties via printed materials; ie. the newsletter and other official letters.
Since its declaration of "no money", the company kept telling its investors to give it more time to look for buyers to JV in projects, so that it could pay its creditors, and pay investors. Of course, nothing like that happened.
The company actually filed for "bankruptcy protection" in Canada. It was obviously buying time, so that no one could take action against it/him.
In Asia, the investors are betrayed by the top management people. The money paid to the Edgeworth Properties accounts in the various Asian countries are drained, to fill some pockets in "God knows" where!
Why did so many fall victims to Edgeworth Properties of Canada?
They had used big legal firms in Canada to write their agreement. They have used big audit firms to do their accounting. They had used renowned names as their directors in their start-up phase. They had physically done small developments, submitted some development plannings to local authorities,... but alas, most are done half ways, fees in arrears, and many other matters many of us are simply not aware of.
Now, he is using "bankruptcy protection", so victims will remain victims for a looooooooooooong time.


Special Situation Blog :-
I would encourage our reader to be careful when invest "new idea" investment products with no direct-license from bank negara (M'sia) / MAS(Singapore).
There're a lot scams waiting to trick us. Don't trust those high return yield investment. If you want high return, invest in stock market with special situation strategy.