Nearly a year after Axa Investment Management acquired Dolphin Square from the US-based Westbrook group, they are taking action to stem the massive losses incurred by the former management company, Dolphin Square Limited.
In accounts to 31st December 2020 filed at Companies House on 16th August last, Axa state that Dolphin Square Limited will be put into liquidation within 12 months and that the assets and liabilities are being hived up to a new management company, Dolphin Square Operator Limited.
The accounts reveal that Dolphin Square Limited had a turnover of only £4,776,678 in 2020 compared with £11,199,637 in 2019 and incurred a gross loss of £5,103,963 in 2020 compared with a stated loss of £986,240 in 2019.
The Jersey-based Dolphin Square Limited, formerly named Mantilla Limited, had accrued losses of more than £50 million at the time of the acquisition and the total losses at the end of 2020 amounted to more than £63 million.
As a result, Axa had to inject a further £32 million into the company raising its share capital to more than £62 million following an injection of nearly £29 million on making the acquisition of the Dolphin Square estate in which they took over an existing mortgage of more than £500 million.
The accounts reveal that Dolphin Square Limited had not paid more than £4 million of VAT owing on service apartment rentals in previous years and a further injection of cash was needed to offset this which increased the trading loss for the previous year by more than £1 million.
The two directors of Dolphin Square Limited are Joe Persechino and Federico Faravelli, both senior Axa managers. For the first time, the accounts reveal the ultimate ownership of the Dolphin Square estate to be AXA CoRE European Fund SCS, which is incorporated in Luxembourg.
Axa have replaced the long-serving General Manager of Dolphin Square Limited, Neil Miller-Chalk, who left in May. His successor is Erdal Kakar, who was appointed Managing Director in July. He has 10 years experience of managing residential investment property in the UK.