When Firstport collapsed into administration, the ultimate owner, The Tchenguiz Family Trust fully expected to buy back Firstport out of administration and re-connect his companies. The revenue raised from Firstport was vital to support Tchenguiz company loans.
When the Tchenguiz Family Trust failed to buy back Firstport from administration the next plan was for Chamonix and Electra to "save" Firstport from being liquidated so that it could subsequently be bought back after a short period, though at a higher price and after a "nice little earner" for Chamonix and Electra that would amount to several million pounds.
Fate was unkind to Tchenguiz. The upwards of £200,000,000 that he had hoped for in compensation for the wrongful SFO arrest ended up at around £2,500,000.
This meant that he could no longer buy back Firstport.
The immediate consequence of this was that he could no longer service his loans and so he was forced to market his property portfolio in a manner that was effectively controlled by the banks.
The other consequence was that Chamonix/Electra were now stuck with Firstport.
Nigel Bannister and Keith Edgar, who were largely reponsible for all the dubious practices of Firstport including thhe price fixing scandal and had been kept on in the expectation that Firstport would be re-united with the Tchenguiz companies, were now politely asked to "persue other employment opportunities."
With their appalling reputation any other property management company would have had severe reservations about employing them, so they decided to set up on their own assisted by a few other members of the Firstport old guard.
So Freemont Property Managers was born.
They had some initial success aided by their close relationship they had maintained with Estates & Management and connections with other freeholding companies.
It was often the case that residents unhappy with Firstport were directed by E&M to select Freemont.
Eventually it is believed they ended up with 85 developments under their management.
But they were widely spread over the country, which began to effect service levels and because of their locations they proved too expensive administratively for Freemont to sustain.
Thus far Freemont have not set the world alight with their trading performance.
About Firstport have now received information suggesting that Freemont is up for sale.
Anyone thinking of purchasing the company should be able to drive a very hard bargain.
