SEC Okays Treasureline... BusinessDay

Life will indeed change soon for high risk investors as another story in BusinessDay Newspaper, Nigeria's leading business newspaper reported yesterday that the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finally registered Treasureline one of the so called wonder banks as legit fund managers.

The news which was joyfully received by some of the investors I spoke with can be found using this link: http://www.businessdayonline.com/banking/2943.html

Alternatively you can read the whole text below.

SEC registers ‘born-again wonder bank —Treasureline
27 January, 2008 04:55:00 BLESSING ANARO
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In the developed world, especially in Europe, the United States and even Asia, there’s nothing new or strange in what we’re doing in the areas of investment.

Alternative investment scheme
Essentially, following the deregulation and liberalization of Nigeria’s economy under the current democratic dispensation, a new crop of investors and investment experts knowledgeable and with skills in new ways of funds management emerged in the country.Working in tandem with like minds, especially investors who believed in them, these fund managers invested their pool of funds in forex trading, oil and gas, real estate, solid minerals and of course stocks.
Unlike conventional investors, they took this route with the conviction and believe that they will reap bountiful returns. They did this, knowing quite well that the investment scheme is a high risk venture but with higher returns on investment.
For sometime, the operators fulfilled their promise of higher returns on investment to subscribers. But later the bubble burst as a result of proliferation in the sector and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s public announcement which cause a run on their operations.At a time, there were over 50 operators involved in the scheme. Amongst them were sincere, dependable, reliable and charlatans as well.
But rather than throw away the baby along with the bath water, money market experts say what the government should have done was to come out with a regulatory framework to serve as guidelines for operations in the sector early enough so as to avoid the pains and agony witnessed as a result of the general clampdown on both genuine operators and the charlatans.
At least, in other parts of the world, similar schemes are operational without any hiccups.
And with globalisation, Nigeria can’t isolate itself from trends and developments in other parts of the world.
In Europe, US and other parts of the world, high risk investment like this are known as Hedge funds. not a few operators however say they are yet to get a legal framework for Hedge funds operation in this country. The earlier the government does this, the better they it insist, only be for Nigerians.

Transforming into a unit trust
Following registration and restructuring with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), it is now set for operation as a unit trust scheme like First Fund, IBTC and others. Assuring that, return on investment would be attractive and mouth watering, probably better than the competition. The idea is to ensure that subscribers to our fund reap bountifully.And as a unit trust now, just like the others Treasureline Interlink now have issuing houses, registrar, trustees, auditors, reporting accountants, solicitors to the offer, solicitors to the trustee and stockbrokers to the offer.
Already arrangements have almost been concluded with all the parties to be involved in its forthcoming offer under this new dispensation. And unlike before, subscribers to Treasureline’s unit trust now would be paid on a quarterly basis. That is four times in a year.
Revalidation of investors list, updating of database could be done very soon, before we open this new offers, we’ll embark on a revalidation exercise to enable us know the actual number of their investors and the ghost ones.
This is because from experience, we have had encounter with people who are not our subscribers but claimed to be so. So for auditing purpose, its embark on the revalidation exercise. This exercise would ensure that we update our database, so that we’ll know the number of our subscribers that would become involved in this new dispensation. We’ll publish details of the exercise as advertorial in newspapers soon.

Sense of appreciation
Anyway, we’ve almost consolidated on this new arrangement with all the parties involved. And hopefully before the end of the first quarter this year 2008 our units for offer would have opened. To get this far I wish to commend the legion of our subscribers for their sense of understanding. I offer our sincere and tremendous appreciation and commendation to them especially those that have been giving us advice and suggestions on the way forward.