RiverOak

RiverOak Investment Corp. LLC

RiverOak seems to have been brought into this by Tony Freudmann. RiverOak is a US real estate company that is registered as an LLC in Delaware. This gives RiverOak considerable protection from prosecution. We’ve been looking at some Delaware Supreme Court judgements. As the Court says:

“…ultimately, LLCs and corporations are different; investors can choose to invest in an LLC, which offers one bundle of rights, or in a corporation, which offers an entirely separate bundle of rights.”

We think that TDC (who now has no Head of Legal) has no idea what kind of organisation the Council could be hopping into bed with.

RiverOak says that: "RiverOak funds invest in gap equity positions of $2 million to $5 million per transaction in deals that are typically $8 million to $50 million." So, they don't buy assets outright and they don't typically spend more than $5m.Their most recently launched fund was $50m and some of this money has already been invested. A senior construction industry contact of ours has said that the brownfield land at Manston, if Ann Gloag could get permission to develop it, would be worth around £1m per acre. If he’s right, that 720 acre site has to be well outside of RiverOak’s funding reach.

RiverOak invests in student housing; medical establishments and some domestic housing. The company says that one of their senior managers was involved in the refinancing of Alliance Fort Worth Airport when he/she worked for a previous employer. We can find no evidence anywhere that RiverOak as a company has any aviation experience, and definitely no trace of the company ever having been airport operators. We suspect that RiverOak wants the land for housing.

RiverOak Investment Corporation LLC set up RiverOak Aviation Associates LLC on 3rd July 2014. This suggests to us that Manston would indeed be RiverOak’s first ever foray into aviation. Ann Gloag said in her Gazette interview that she did not like the way that RiverOak/Freudmann did business and that RiverOak was not credible as an airport operator. 

Why is RiverOak an LLC? And what is an LLC anyway?

The organisation that TDC is so keen on handing the Manston site to is not RiverOak Investment Corp LLC, but a subsidiary outfit registered in Delaware on 3rd July 2014 called RiverOak Aviation Associates LLC.

I wondered why a company based in Connecticut would want to be registered some 300 miles away in Delaware. And I wondered what an LLC might be, in US law.

The fine people at about.com produce helpful advice on just about every topic under the sun. Here is their guide to LLCs for novice investors - do read it carefully. All comments welcome.

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The Beginner's Guide to Delaware LLCs

An Overview of the Benefits of Forming a Delaware LLC - Summary of Delaware LLC Benefits

Here are just a few of the major benefits of forming a Delaware LLC for a family business, investment pool, or other asset:

• Delaware is the leading incorporation state in part because it has a separate Court of Chancery, which handles corporate law cases quickly and with more expertise than the general courts in most states. This means that disputes are easier to handle because there is more than a century of established case law that is relatively friendly to businesses.

• Delaware has no sales tax, income tax, or intangible personal property tax.

• A Delaware LLC allows the members and managers to remain anonymous, making it easier to hide assets. By naming a local Delaware attorney as the registered agent, you can remove all reference to you and the other investors. In fact, the only people who have to know about the income and assets of your Delaware LLC are the folks at the IRS. That makes it incredibly difficult for a potential creditor to identify where you have money invested or parked.

• You don’t have to actually do business in Delaware to form a Delaware LLC because the state permits so-called foreign investors (meaning someone from out-of-state).

• A single person or investor can form a Delaware LLC without anyone else. He or she can serve as President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer!

• There are very low costs involved in forming most standard Delaware LLCs. The actual filings fees with the Secretary of State are roughly $250 plus an on-going annual fees are less than $150 per year for a small company.

• There are no minimum capital requirements for forming a Delaware LLC. You could establish one with only a few hundred dollars if you wanted. This makes it an attractive choice for many start-ups that don’t have a lot of money to invest.

http://beginnersinvest.about.com/od/holdingmethods/a/Delaware-LLCs-for-Beginners.htm