A financial company given a £700,000 Welsh Government grant to open an office in Wales has been asked to repay the cash after it closed its Caerphilly base.
Guardian Wealth Management closed its office on Castle Gate Business Park in June last year.
According to reports, the company’s decision to leave Wales was based on low demand for its financial products aimed at the Muslim community.
Doncaster-based Guardian Wealth Management originally planned to open an office in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taff, but eventually set up in Caerphilly.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “A first payment of around £700,000 was made to Guardian Wealth Management in March 2013 when the firm had met our targets for jobs created.
“Those staff were subsequently absorbed into other parts of the group when Guardian Wealth Management later decided to relocate to premises outside Wales.
“We are in negotiations with the company to recover the grant paid.”
Caerphilly Observer contacted Guardian Wealth Management and spoke to a gentleman who refused to give his name.
He said there had been several false statements made in other media reports, but did not elaborate further when questioned.
When we asked him if he was authorised to speak on behalf of the company he said he was but answered each of our questions with “no comment”.
It seems very shady for the Welsh Assembly to give £700000 (1/14 of the company’s revenue) of our money to a little-known financial services company whose bosses refuse to give a name when questioned by a reputable newspaper.
Will this money be recouped? If it was a contract clause there would need not be negotiations about repaying it; a court ruling would suffice.
A little known company based in Doncaster that wanted to open an office in Caerphilly that specialised in a Muslim client base when there are very few Muslims in this area outside of Cardiff.
How did it go wrong I ask you? How?