Who owns "The Gardens"?

[MarkE]

I was alerted to this item on the Private Eye website this morning.

Ordinarily I couldn't be all that fussed, but zoning in on East Dulwich provoked my curiosity - how comes The Gardens is really the only place locally which is "acquired by overseas companies"? I'd have thought that, particularly given its age, it would have been privately held by a large number of individuals, not a single organisation.

Except that, that it exactly what it appears. Who are "Grip Nomco 3" and "Grip Nomco 4" from Jersey?

[edhistory]

Price paid ?1.

[Penguin68]

Who are "Grip Nomco 3" and "Grip Nomco 4" from Jersey?

These are anonymous companies (obviously linked by the names) which will have probably hidden beneficial owners. The ?1 fee paid will be a token transfer cost moving ownership off-shore (from on-shore). This suggests that the whole square (freehold) is owned by one entity, but that is typical of many London squares - in central London owned by such as the Duke of Westminster. An individual buys up a plot of land, develops it (in London often as a square) and lets the housing on it on long leases. Often the freeholds are later sold individually, in this case obviously not. At some stage a tax adviser will have suggested that it would be better to hold the property off shore - possibly for IHT reasons. The Freehold of course may have been sold to an off-shore holder recently. The fact that it's all together now I feel reflects not someone buying up the square piecemeal, but someone buying (or moving off-shore) an estate that was already together, probably since its very first development.

[mikeb]

Oddly enough for a tax haven, the Jersey Financial Services Commission has a website that does actually publish shareholders of Jersey companies, for ?4 a time: https://www.jerseyfsc.org/

So far, I have traced

* GRIP NomCo 3 LIMITED is 100% owned by

* G:RES-CO4 LIMITED, which is 100% owned by

* Crestbridge Corporate Trustees Limited, which is 100% owned by

* Crestbridge Limited, which is 100% owned by

* Crestbridge Jersey Holdings Limited

Now that I've spent ?16 so far, perhaps someone else would like to pick up the baton? I suspect it will roll up to these guys at some point and then the trail will go cold

http://www.crestbridge.com/

[mikeb]

Final annual return

[mikeb]

Actually, I remember this thread now - it's apparently owned by Grainger

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,47157

http://www.londongardensonline.org.uk/gardens-online-record.asp?ID=SOU031

[titch juicy]

Graingers PLC owns most of the properties.

[Pugwash]

Once upon a time it was managed by Tilt Estates and it's office was opposite the Rye

[Dog duck]

Oh good

[Hagrid]

p24 http://www.graingerplc.co.uk/~/media/Files/G/Grainger-Plc/pdf/download-centre/Grainger-AR-2012.pdf