Maidens

Did some other Maiden get the money?

A number of people - some of whom are creditors of Quest International Sports Events, or Tracy Edwards - have contacted BYM News to say “could the Qatari sponsorship money and/or funds from other sources have been received by some other company?”

According to a document supplied by Companies House, Quest was one of 15 companies in which Tracy Karen Edwards MBE held an appointment, on September 9, 2005.

BYM has tracked down 10 companies which have some Edwards connection, most of which are Maidens, but has not yet found evidence of the receipt of any significant funds. What has become apparent is the need for a Quest creditors’ meeting and - at this stage - the Administrators are not planning to hold one.

The first company BYM found has not always been a Maiden. According to its website, Tracy Edwards Associates Ltd was formed in 1986 (originally called Maiden Great Britain Ltd. until changing it's name in 1991) and since then has run three major sporting Challenges: Tracy Edwards' Maiden Great Britain, the first all-female crew to race around the world with a budget of £2.1 million and sponsored by Royal Jordanian Airlines. The team was 21 strong and lasted three years; Trevor 'Wev' Edwards Formula Vauxhall Team with a budget of £100,000; Tracy Edwards' Jules Verne Challenge, the first all-female crew to attempt to break the circumnavigation record with a budget of £3.2 million and sponsored by Royal & SunAlliance. The team was 16 strong and lasted three years.

The site goes on to say that, in 1997, Tracy Edwards Associates Motivation became a division of Tracy Edwards Associates Ltd. T.E.A.M was formed to structure and run leadership and teamwork training seminars using the philosophy which has formed the foundation of every successful Challenge undertaken by the team. There is an impressive list of T.E.A.M. names on the site, including Sebastian Coe!

The official account is not quite the same, but this early period is still hazy. There was a company called Tracy Edwards Associates Ltd (company number 02075944), which was dissolved on 1/12/1992. Companies House has told BYM News that it was struck off for default in producing accounts.

There was a company called Maiden Great Britain Ltd (Company number 02518009), which had changed its name from Tracy Edwards Associates Ltd on 9 August 1990. What doesn’t yet add up is those two different company numbers.

The present Tracy Edwards Associates Ltd is yet another entity (company number 03297341) and was not incorporated until December 1996, not 10 years earlier as the website states.

There is a proposal to strike off the present Tracy Edwards Associates Ltd, which has not filed any accounts since those for 2001 (left).

The first accounts for Maiden Great Britain Ltd were issued, after 16 months trading, made up to December 31, 1991. According to those accounts and other information supplied by Companies House, the company was incorporated on July 3, 1990 and began trading on September 1, 1990, having changed its name from Tracy Edwards Associates Ltd to Maiden Great Britain Ltd, on August 9, 1990, but Tracy Edwards was not on the list of Directors. In those first accounts, the directors were given as K Wells and Howard Gibbons, who received consultancy fees of £17,000.

Those first accounts show that, in that 16 months, Maiden Great Britain Ltd made a gross profit of £18K, which was 66% of turnover, but, after deducting distribution costs (£1.2K) and administrative expenses (£30.5K), there was an operating loss of £13K. Auditors Touche Ross said:


	The present Directors of Maiden Great Britain Ltd are Keith Russell Webb & Nicholas John Stone, who do not appear to have any connection with Tracy Edwards, and Dormant Company Accounts have been filed up to 31 December 2004..

The next Maidens were Maiden Ltd and Maiden Two Ltd, which came into being on December 17 2001 and departed when they were dissolved on September 13 2005.

The last accounts, dated December 2002, for Maiden Ltd are Dormant Company Accounts. No accounts for Maiden II Ltd are available from Companies House.

The sole Director listed for both companies is Tracy Karen Edwards and the Company Secretary, for both, is listed as Anthony Trevor Lewis Edwards.

Then we come to Maiden Global Challenges Ltd and Maiden Ocean Racing Ltd, both incorporated on September 26, 2002.


	The Current Appointments list (left) for Maiden Global Challenges Ltd does not show any connection with Tracy Edwards, but further searching revealed that she transferred her share in this company to Gavin Slater on May 8, 2004 (see below). Another connection is that Kerry Gilkison appears on the creditors list, in the Administrators Report for Quest International Sports Events, as being owed £15,274.99.



		That share transfer is curious for, exactly 4 months earlier, Maiden Global Challenges Ltd had issued a press release, saying that “the recently formed company which manages Qatar 2006's sponsorship of Maiden 2, today announced a number of key appointments.” “David Sebire has been appointed Chairman of MGC. David, 60, is currently Chairman of media company, Flightstore Group PLC, and is a non-executive Director of Highbury House Communications PLC, one of the UK's leading publishers of consumer magazines.”

The release went on to say that Pitch PR had been appointed as MGC's communications and marketing partner and Brian Thompson as skipper of Qatar 2006. It added that Howard Gibbons (the former Maiden Great Britain director) would oversee the rebranding of Maiden II, in preparation for the trip to Qatar, whilst Thompson was crewing on Cheyenne.

Despite these appointments and the earlier statement describing MGC as “the company which manages Qatar 2006’s sponsorship of Maiden II”, in October 2004, Gavin Slater signed Dormant Company Annual Returns for Maiden Global Challenges Ltd, made up to September 26, 2004.

Photo left by Clearspeed. David Sebire.

There is evidence to suggest that the other company born alongside MGC, Maiden Ocean Racing Ltd., was also actively involved in paying bills connected with the Maiden/Qatar affair.John Taylor of Sports Impact Ltd, which had sued for non-payment, received a letter signed by Edwards on December 22, 2003. It was written on Maiden Ocean Racing Ltd headed notepaper and said "I can confirm that we will pay Invoices numbered: 0152, 0153, 0160, 0177 and 0169 when funds are received, hopefully in January 2004." There is, however, another anomaly because, in a statement of the Maiden Ocean Racing Qatar Ltd website, Edwards said “The litigation commenced against Maiden Ocean Racing and Maiden Ocean Racing Qatar by Sports Impact is being vigorously defended. Sports Impact has never had a contract with either of these companies. I have asked Mr. Taylor of Sports Impact repeatedly to justify the extraordinary invoices he says he has incurred on behalf of the events. He has to date been unable to do so. All other companies and individuals who have done work for QISE Ltd have been paid or are currently in the process of being paid. The invoices from Sports Impact have been the only ones which have not withstood scrutiny and rightly so.”

No accounts for Maiden Ocean Racing Ltd are available from Companies House, but the Appointments List names Tracy Karen Edwards & Trevor Edwards as Directors.


	Two more Maidens arrived on the scene, on September 21, 2003, when Maiden Productions Ltd and Maiden Events Ltd were incorporated, with consecutive company numbers..

Maiden Productions Ltd has an Edwards connection, for she is listed as it’s company secretary. The Director is given as Cordelia (“Doo”) Gurney, seen above with Tracy Edwards and Perry Smith (QSi) at the announcement of the £38 million Qatari Sponsorship. Gurney’s company Traibe Management Qatar Ltd appears on the Qest creditors list as being owed. £20,581.

At first glance, BYM discounted Maiden Events Ltd as having no connection with this saga, because the Directors are listed as Susan Patterson, Jas Sarna and Alison Young. That Maiden Events (company number 05192195) was, however, not incorporated until 28 July 2004, two months after the original Maiden Events Ltd (04840227) changed its name to Quest International Sports Events Ltd. Before that name change, however, another Maiden entered the arena, when Maiden Ocean Racing Qatar Ltd was incorporated on October 9, 2003.




	Quest in Administration The screenshot on the right was taken today - September 23, 2005 - it appears to show that, as recently as July 2005, the Qatar Government’s Tourism Authority believed that the Oryx Cup was run by Maiden Ocean Racing Qatar Ltd. We know that at least one company appears on the Quest Creditors List as being owed £18584 for legal fees. Yet that company, Sports Impact, originally sued Maiden Ocean Racing Ltd and Maiden Ocean Racing Qatar Ltd. Other Quest creditors have told BYM News that they are unsure about which company they invoiced and which paid them, with some payments being put into bank accounts by the Qatar Marine Sports Federation.


		The incorporation of Maiden Ocean Racing Qatar Ltd was just 5 days before Tracy Edwards, wearing an MORQ shirt, announced that she had obtained £38 million in Qatari sponsorship. Perry Smith, a director of Qatar Sports International (QSi) and Edwards had their photographs taken with the model of a catamaran called Qatar 2006. An artists impression of the catamaran, formerly Maiden II, in Qatari colours and with Maiden Ocean Racing Qatar on the sails, was given to the press, who were told that this would be how the catamaran would soon look. No-one seems to have actually seen an announcement saying that Maiden Ocean Racing Qatar Ltd was the company that had a contract with QSi, but from then on www.maidenoceanracingqatar.com & www.maidenoceanracing.co.uk began publishing news stories of how the run up to the Oryx Cup was progressing. MORQ filed Dormant Company Accounts on May 31, 2004 and is now in liquidation.

We know that £ millions were spent in staging publicity events connected with the Oryx Cup, in payments to competing boats and on the event itself. What BYM News has not been able to find is any Accounts showing which company spent those considerable sums, nor which company received funds to enable payments to be made.

So questions have been put to the Quest Administrators, Kroll Ltd. “Having read what has been written here, regarding the role companies other than Quest have played in events connected with the Oryx Cup, do you consider it possible that some of those on your list of Quest Creditors might really be creditors of another company, or that some other company could be a Quest debtor? If so, how would this affect the Administration?


	Marian Martin

A spokesman for Kroll has given BYM News the following response, after pre-viewing this page, on a private url

Re: Creditors meeting
"Due to insufficient property being available to make a distribution to creditors, the Administrators decided against holding a Creditors' Meeting, as the cost of holding a meeting could not be justified. The Administrators distributed a Creditors' Report and explained to Creditors in the accompanying letter that they could request a Creditors' meeting which would be held if a sufficient level of interest was raised, however to date the Administrators have received no written requests for this."
Re: In response to the proposed article
"The Administrators have concluded that the purpose of Administration - one of which is the survival of the Company - is not achievable and have therefore reported to the creditors with a proposal that the Company be placed into liquidation. The Administrators continue to conduct their review of the company and any notable transactions in the company's recent past, and to collect in and realise any available assets.
"The Administrators would welcome any information that may assist them in this process. They will pass any details provided and the findings from their own review onto the subsequently appointed liquidator. The Administrators consider however that this remains a private matter for creditors."
Re: In response to a comment on BYM's website regarding the absence from the creditors' report of any reference to $70m sponsorship
"The Administrators have only been appointed over the Quest International Sports Events Ltd company and the Creditors' Report only refers to this company and its related assets and liabilities and we have no evidence of a sponsorship contract for $70m. The Administrators have not been appointed to any connected company nor any other company under the ownership of Ms Edwards.


	Photos (except where otherwise stated, Maiden Ocean Racing Qatar


	[BYM News Home Page] [Oryx Quest] [70 million] [Maidens]