That's remarkably prescient of those 17th century folk to legislate for the railways ;-)

Oops, 19th even.

The most interesting set of accounts is the year that NAIL took over from HIE as operator of CGML...

CGML had new articles on 5th June 2014

ALL the below info is from Accounts for CGML year ending March 2015

"related party relationships & transactions":-
During the period the company received management services amounting to £483K, purchase of fixed assets amount to £82K, & other services amounting to £122k..all from Natural Retreats UK Ltd. As of March 2015 £100K was still owing to NRL of the above amounts.

Basically from June 2014 to March 2015 Natural retreats had billed CGML £687K...& CGML had paid out £587K....so that's half a million straight out of CGML & into NR....& mainly for "management services"...


Asset stripping as I have been stating ALL along!!…

"this section edited as mis-read accounts as soo complex, so incorrect info deleted"

CGML also paid out £516K on "dividends on preference shares classed as financial liabilities"

Up until 10th June CGML was owned by HIE...& then on 11th June 2014 the entire share capital of £565k was bought by NAIL.

Also on a final note from these accounts it states:-

The company has net liabilities (Minus) of £93K for year ending March 2015...& yet it had net assets of (plus) £105K for year ending March 2014...

As soon as NAIL took over asset striping....



ON a Final Final note I strongly recommend all interested persons to read the opening statement in the March 2014 accounts for CGML made by G.S. Johnston:-

[document-api-images-prod.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com]


He goes into great depth about the ski season, bad weather, days closed etc. He also states that QUOTE "we ended the year having fully repaid the loan & cash advance to our shareholders HIE".


He then goes on about HIE seeking to get NR to take over & states QUOTE "HIE have received positive returns since taking over the company"...


Now go & compare that to all the subsequent statements made by CGML under NAIL..& what they have done to it...




---That was not a fall, I intended to do that!---



Edited 2 times. Last edit at 17.27hrs Wed 31 Oct 18 by SnowmanDave.

SnowmanDave, that analysis has hit the NAIL on the head (sorry bad pun alert).

However, it's saying something that the current management have managed to make the situation in 2014 actually look good.

Nice financial article on David Gorton in the FN from 2011...about how his hedge fund company failed & then he had to rebuild it...

[www.fnlondon.com]

QUOTE:- Founding partner David Gorton told Financial News: "We expanded and tried to become a diversified asset manager as opposed to doing what we did best. We spread ourselves too thinly. The lesson is to focus intently on what you do best and don't stray too far from this."

So Mr. Gorton why have you NOT taken your own advice & thrown out all the pervious staff, & totally ignored all that has gone before??


That's right because you like making money for YOU....


& that company has changed its name to DG partners now...
[beta.companieshouse.gov.uk]


You like changing company names quite often don't you???

---That was not a fall, I intended to do that!---

All sounds very messy. HIE have made a huge mistake. Good luck getting the keys back.

Is there a mid lease break in the contract?

If all this could be untangled the story of the funicular would make a fascinating if alarming documentary.

If you look at the lease between NR and HIE (available on the HIE website) HIE could have terminated the lease on the basis that the Daylodge development has not been completed (or started) as this was a condition of the lease...i.e NR to pay for the development of the Daylodge by a particular 'back-stop' date. Now HIE may have changed this backstop date, or just decided not to enforce the lease. I am sure there are other ways to terminate the lease if HIE chooses to....

I am not sure what a fancy building at the bottom of the hill would do for skiers or the summer 'cake-munchers' but hey, the thunder brains at HIE obviously thought that this was what Cairngorm needed in 2015.

It seems they (HIE) are pretty much running the place now anyhow...taking the lead in fairly disastrously communicating the problems with the funicular, time-lines for decisions and attempting to manage the situation.


I would have thought that NR would have taken the lead on all this as they are the operator, but I suppose it is easier to let a public body spend the time effort on money sorting it all out, then poof £1M is found to fund your very own snow factory...meanwhile on the other side of the cairngorms, the Lecht has shelled out £500K of their own cash on a snow machine as have Glencoe (both may have got some grant assistance tho)

If they didn't get grant assistance then they need to apply for a retrospective one to cover the cost on the grounds that a commercial competitor has just been given a £1m grant for equipment they will presumably be allowed to keep once the uplift issues are resolved. GS and Nevis should ask as well.