Bond firm LC&F lent millions on pet projects

London Capital & Finance, the £214 million high-risk bond company frozen by the Financial Conduct Authority, made a series of loans for the pet projects of two close associates, it emerged on Monday.

The Standard has previously disclosed how Simon Hume-Kendall, who set up the firm in 2012, borrowed millions to invest in a Cornish leisure park and North Sea explorer Independent Oil & Gas. It now emerges that, on top of the £14.5 million for Independent, he borrowed a further £8 million from LC&F to invest in a Copenhagen-stock market-listed North Sea oil company called Atlantic Petroleum.

Another associate, Hume-Kendall’s friend Spencer Golding, made introductions which resulted in LC&F giving a loan to River Lodge Equestrian, the stables where he was patron.

Millionaire Golding, a helicopter-owning big spender in the equestrian world, is currently banned from serving as a director due to misdeeds while working in the timeshare business.

He was closely involved with LC&F’s fundraising by broking a deal for it to use controversial marketing firm Surge to raise money from investors. A spokesman for Golding said he had introduced the stables boss to the chief executive of LC&F Andy Thomson as "friends" and not to set up a loan.

Hume-Kendall left the lender a year after founding it under the name of South-Eastern Counties Finance. His and Golding’s friend Andy Thomson took it over and rebranded it LC&F.

Many of LC&F’s 14,000 bondholders are elderly. Coupon payments were suspended late last month.