Nick Sweet, the treasurer of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, has racked up greater than £100mn of economic losses backing quite a lot of failed ventures together with an augmented actuality start-up and a excessive vogue home.
The property developer behind luxurious Knightsbridge condo block One Hyde Park — which has been a magnet for oligarchs, pop stars and different super-rich consumers — took the senior submit in Farage’s social gathering final yr with the promise to remodel its funds and woo important donors.
Sweet has spearheaded Reform fundraising dinners that attracted former Conservative donors. He was additionally current at a December assembly at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort between Farage and Elon Musk when the Tesla chief was contemplating making a big contribution to the social gathering, which made massive positive aspects in England’s native elections this month.
Although typically described as a billionaire, Sweet’s funds are obscured by an online of offshore firms in jurisdictions corresponding to Luxembourg and Guernsey, main some bankers to query the viability of his tried bids for multibillion pound firms.
Accounts for Sweet’s Luxembourg-based funding portfolio, Sweet Ventures, present his funding firm recorded losses totalling €120mn (£101mn) from its inception in 2014 up till December 2023, the final date for which figures can be found, in accordance with evaluation by the Monetary Instances.
Sweet Ventures had a gross e-book worth of €167mn on the finish of 2023, with a internet worth of simply €69mn, in accordance with its monetary statements. Nonetheless, an individual acquainted with Sweet Enterprise’s investments mentioned that as of March it had investments in 17 firms with a complete “mark-to-market” worth of round £350mn.
Sweet has a 90 per cent stake within the funding agency, whereas director Steven Smith owns the remaining 10 per cent. It was based in 2014 to “again visionary founders with world ambitions” and use its “distinctive community to powerfully speed up companies and concepts”, in accordance with the corporate’s web site.
The enterprise recorded a €3mn revenue in 2021, however has misplaced cash each different yr of operation, accounts present. It incurred its largest annual lack of €67mn in 2018, with one other €30mn in 2020, after backing quite a lot of failed start-ups together with augmented actuality firm Blippar.
Blippar was based in 2011, however collapsed seven years later over a funding dispute. In 2017, the FT revealed that quite a lot of claims founder Ambarish Mitra made about his rags-to-riches back-story had been fabricated or exaggerated.
In 2017, Sweet Ventures had an funding price €22mn in Blippar, and was additionally owed nearly €2mn in excellent loans by the corporate, in accordance with filings.
After its collapse, Sweet Ventures purchased the enterprise’s property out of administration and accounts present it holds a 49 per cent stake in an organization referred to as “Blippar 2.0”.
It isn’t the one time Sweet Ventures has purchased a failed enterprise out of administration. In 2016, music social media platform Crowdmix, which counted DJ Pete Tong as a backer, collapsed owing £7.8mn to Sweet Ventures.
One other Sweet enterprise, owned by Sweet Ventures, purchased the corporate for £6.75mn, made up of £650,000 in money and simply over £6mn in debt forgiveness.
In 2020 Sweet’s firm additionally wrote off a €23mn mortgage that it was owed by excessive vogue home Ralph & Russo. A yr later the model — which loved a string of endorsements from celebrities together with Beyoncé and Angelina Jolie and likewise obtained funding from controversial financier Lars Windhorst — fell into administration.
Though Sweet Ventures has a document of backing smaller know-how start-ups, Sweet has drawn scrutiny after his Luxembourg funding car introduced it was contemplating bids for bigger property corresponding to THG, previously The Hut Group, and property firm Capital & Counties.
Each goal firms had market values of roughly £2bn on the time, whereas Sweet Ventures’ accounts present that it had property price lower than €60mn. Neither bid materialised.
In 2022, Sweet said that he had made a proposal alongside different consumers to buy Chelsea Soccer Membership from Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who was below sanctions. Just a few months later US financier Todd Boehly agreed to purchase the Premier League facet for £4.25bn.
Sweet Ventures additionally backed Robert Bonnier’s firm Aaqua, a social media start-up, in 2021. Aaqua went bankrupt the next yr. Sweet remains to be pursuing Aaqua and Bonnier by London’s courts.
Sweet has different registered firms within the UK, which have comparatively little monetary exercise, whereas his Guernsey-based entity doesn’t submit a breakdown of revenue and loss.
In a 2017 judgment referring to a case introduced towards Sweet by a former enterprise companion, Lord Justice Christopher Nugee, mentioned Sweet was “admittedly very rich however the supply of this wealth is unclear”.
The decide pointed to items of cash and property he had obtained from his older brother Christian as a attainable substantial supply.
One such reward disclosed within the court docket case is Nick Sweet’s personal condo in One Hyde Park, which is available on the market with an asking value of £175mn.
The condo has an excellent mortgage owed to the Financial institution of Singapore, in accordance with filings, which accounts for an additional Sweet firm counsel initially stood at greater than £80mn.
Sweet declined to remark. An individual acquainted with his investments mentioned: “Public filings solely present a partial image, as they seize realised losses however not the upside of energetic or unrealised investments.”
“Like several conventional enterprise portfolio, Sweet Ventures has skilled a spread of outcomes. Its success tales — which can finally ship sturdy returns — merely aren’t mirrored till they’re monetised,” the individual added.
Additionally they cautioned towards “drawing conclusions” from the accounts with out this “broader context”.
Extra reporting by Owen Walker