Vanfunds get swallowed up and leave investors high and dry…

You know that feeling you get when things are going just too well? There is bound to be something that happens to knock you off balance, well that’s what has happened with Vanfunds. They have been bought out by a company in Hong Kong.

The announcement was made in a newsletter from Vanfunds at the end of last week. The new owner is Holding Investors and Traders S.A (Hololding Int.).

Now I’m not suggesting that the new owner is any way unsuitable or unable to provide as good or even a better service that Vanfunds but I am disappointed that investors have effectively been cut off from their accounts as a result of this buyout. Without any prior warning we are told that our accounts will be transferred to the new company.

I understand that confidentiality issues arise when deals like this are done but I would have been happier if the Vanfunds website was still available and an orderly transition take place. As it is we are now completely in the hands of Holding Int. and there is no real clarity as to when the new platform will be available.

In part mitigation of this disruption members have been promised an additional 3.5% interest to be paid but it is not clear whether this is a one-off payment or a longer term deal.

When I looked at the Holding Int. website it was clear that there is still a lot of work to do to make it suitable for administering our accounts. And that’s another niggle because the Vanfunds website was in my opinion probably the most user friendly online investing website out there.

The Vanfunds support staff were not part of the deal so they are no longer available to help with questions and these will now be handled by staff at Holding Int.

Let’s hope that the massive of amount of work which is clearly needed to be done is given a high priority so that we can access our accounts sooner rather than later.

If things go well there is the opportunity to access a commodity fund investment from Holding Int. but details of this are not yet available.