Two of the Big Boy Suits of property giant Capital and Counties (Capco), investment director Gary Yardley and chief executive Ian Hawksworth, have served up fine entertainment of late. They've taken to calling their company's planned destruction of Earls Court and North Fulham in order to colonise them with ludicrously expensive flats its "reimagination". A whole new frontier of estate agent euphemism has been opened up. Perhaps they should award themselves a bonus.
Capco is also boasting that it has sold lots of the presently non-existent units to be built on the Earls Court exhibition centre car park in a development called Lillie Square as part of this lamentable Earls Court Project – what the developer's eager borough partners, the Tory flagship council Hammersmith and Fulham, would have us believe will create a "decent neighbourhood".
The company is, though, being more reticent about the joint venture it entered into two years ago to finance this part of the wider scheme. The other party to the arrangement was described, somewhat tortuously, at the time as "entities in which certain members of the Kwok family are interested (the 'Kwok Family Interests')".
If mention of the Kwok family rings a bell, it's probably because two of its leading members, Raymond and Thomas, are currently on trial in Hong Kong, facing bribery charges (which they deny) in what is being described as the highest-profile corruption case the city has ever seen. Do those "certain members" of the Kwok family who "have an interest" in the "entities" with which Capco has joined include Raymond Kwok, Thomas Kwok or maybe both?
I asked Capco, which replied that it was "unable" to say. But I took up their suggestion of directly asking the Kwok Family Interests (or "KFI" as it's been shortened to in a recent press release). I couldn't quickly locate these "entities" as such but took note that, in Capco's words, "interests of the Kwok family are major shareholders of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited", this being one of the biggest real estate companies in Hong Kong and, also according to Capco, "one of the most highly reputable".
Thomas and Raymond Kwok are Sun Hung Kai's co-chairmen. So I asked the company if the brothers were among those "certain members" of the Kwok family with whom Capco is doing business. It replied:
The investment that you mentioned did not involve Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited, so we are not in a position to provide further information.
I asked Capco why it was "unable" to tell me which Kwoks are parties to its joint venture. It replied that it cannot comment on its confidential commercial arrangements but later pointed out that the joint venture set up is registered at Companies House.
I looked. Companies House couldn't supply details for Lillie Square LP [Limited Partnership] but could for Lillie Square GP Limited, the LP's general partner. The record shows that a Raymond Ping Luen Kwok was appointed one of its directors on 13 September, 2012.
So, is that a "yes"?
Read a timeline of the Earls Court Project here and find an archive of my coverage of the scheme here.
