Insolvency at Beaufort puts clients in limbo

AROUND 20,000 retail customers at Beaufort Securities have been plunged into uncertainty after the City regulator announced that the small cap broker was in administration.

The Financial Conduct Authority said yesterday that Beaufort and its sister arm Beaufort Asset Clearing Services

PWC said its priority was to ‘identify, protect and in due course return money’

had to cease regulatory activity following an assessment of the firms’ finances, which led it to conclude that it was insolvent.

The accounting giant PWC has been appointed as special administrator by the High Court and will now take over the running of the two firms “in order to protect assets from dissipation and protect the customers”, the FCA said. As well as retail clients, who have invested in products such as Isas and pensions, the group acted as broker for a slew of Aimlisted firms, and yesterday’s news prompted dozens of announcements on the stock exchange as companies scrambled to react.

A number of companies with joint brokers said that the remaining firm would become their sole broker, while others, including Wishbone Gold, PCG Entertainment and Tiger Resource Finance, who had Beaufort as their sole adviser, said they were looking for a new broker.

PWC said its priority was to “identify, protect and in due course return client money and assets to rightful clients to the fullest extent possible”.

The collapse also leaves the future of around 100 staff across offices in London, Bristol and Colwyn Bay uncertain.