TPS vs BG AS
From Crisis to Opportunity – Over 90% of Investors Secure Their Assets.
TPS was originally created when the founders saw an opportunity to transform a crowdfunded forest asset with thousands of small investors who were struggling to be secured and owned through a Swedish public company.
The Norwegian sales company Better Globe AS (BG AS), which crowdfunded the initial forest asset, was targeted by Swedish media in 2019. The critique mainly revolved around two things:
BG AS working with an MLM model, concerns about false promises and accusations of BG AS arranging a ponzi scheme The lack of transparency and external audits
Last week, we were contacted by journalists working on a follow-up article. This page serves as our statement in relation to the articles.
The page will be updated.
In 2022 BG AS sent out information to all their investors, saying that their business model was no longer working. We were all disappointed when BG AS informed us about their inability to keep the promises they made in terms of return on our investments. After the initial disappointment we, the founders of TPS, saw an opportunity to put some pressure on BG AS in terms of transparency, regulation and legal security for the investors.
We entered negotiations with Better Globe AS, resulting in the formation of TPS. We have now helped over 90% of the investors secure their certificates legally by exchanging them for shares in TPS.
Some of the most important steps taken to get to where we are have been:
On 31/12 – 2024, Better Globe A/S will stop sales of products that can be exchanged for shares in TPS. We’ll continue our collaboration in order to ensure that every previous investor gets the opportunity to convert their certificates to shares in TPS.
BDO (the fifth biggest accounting firm in the world), DutchGreen and other external parties validated the existence and value of the trees invested in. We now have external valuations of the biomass and the shares. This is the conclusion from the report that BDO wrote on Better Globe Forestry Ltd:s work:
“Based on our review, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that these financial statements do not give a true and fair view of the financial position of Better Globe Forestry Limited as at 31 December 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, and of its financial performance and cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium-sized Entities.”
— BDO East Africa Kenya
We’ve ensured a proper legal way to own the trees. The legal structure that BG AS had in place was questionable, and has been resolved in the movement from owning trees to owning shares in TPS. TPS in turn owns the values from logging rights for the trees that have been planted.
The legal structure with shares in a public Swedish company puts TPS under Swedish jurisdiction, and the Swedish “Aktiebolagslagen” (The shareholder law). The law in Sweden emphasizes the rights of the shareholder, as well as transparency from us as a company and gives you as a shareholder further security.
BG AS and the people that own BG AS have no significant influence in TPS. They’re shareholders just like all other investors.
Hence, most of the critique that was aimed at BG A/S has been addressed.
We couldn’t have done any of this if BG AS had been organizing a Ponzi scheme as that’s illegal in Sweden.
The new structure, and the external audits, have been made to enhance transparency and security for the investors. We believe that we have the infrastructure mostly in place now.
The work ahead is to further control the asset and enhance the transparency for our shareholders. We’ve ensured a legal structure to invest in trees through TPS, and we’re doing our best to ensure returns for your investment.
