Investments in invisible shares. A financier that promises money but never gives, does not pay associates, and everything wrong with his businesses.

1. Financier Rolf Hess
and everything wrong with his businesses
The nested company group with Luxusholding, finance group and real estate is in trouble
Financier Rolf Hess fights with a liquidity problem
07/06/2003
The business tower in Frauenfeld is largely empty, the watch brand Ikepod is struggling to
survive: Rolf Hess is called for at all corners.
Everything that Rolf Hess raises, looks dazzling at first sight. His classy offices at the Zurich
Stadthausquai as well as his futuristic 11-storey business tower in Frauenfeld. The
investment firm Valarte Group, «a multiband company for luxury, fashion and lifestyle»,
whose shares are listed in Frankfurt and Berlin, or Prosperco, «an international financial
group» is also impressive from outside.
Unclear ownership
Valarte claims: "The brands (...) that are grouped together in the group produce and
distribute complicated mechanical chronometers according to the design of Marc Newson
(Ikepod), classic watches in precious metal versions (Joseph Chevalier) and high-quality
women's fashion (St. Emile). "And one learns:" Valarte is the art of creating values. "This is
obviously the sponsorship of the horse-racing" White Turf ". In the snow of St. Moritz, the
Hess company Chevalier had a Rolls-Royce Phantom of 1934 built, which was once built for
"His Majesty Maharajah of Rajkot".
The details of the course of business are less detailed. Only a few "pro forma" figures of
2001 (turnover 25.2 million euros, loss 1.4 million euros) are available. Valarte announced
that the watch company Ikepod had been taken back on January 1, 2002. The fashion
company St. Emile (Josef Reis GmbH) was acquired on 18 October 2002 and Chevalier on
26 February of 2003.
Oliver Ike sees this differently:

2. Hess has promised money several times, but not paid ​and
thus never taken the company, laments the founder of the
well-known brand Ikepod, which has excited with avant-garde
styled watches.
Roland Duddek, CEO of St. Emile, also corrected Hess's statement: "There is a contract, but
no parts of the capital have yet been transferred to Valarte." Valarte is in default, paying the
agreed amounts.
What are the shareholdings, Mr. Hess? "These are partly business secrets," says the
eloquent financier. "We shot money in Ikepod and have a small stake." She had not been
pushed up because "the development of the last few months was no longer in line with our
goal." At St. Emile (turnover of more than CHF 30 million), the shareholding included "a few
percent", but at Chevalier, "Valarte has acquired the majority".
Payment instructions in house
For the time being, however, Hess had to take care of his main activity: the Prosperco Group
with a balance sheet total of more than 100 million francs. In 2002 alone, eight bankruptcies
of over CHF 10 million and a bankruptcy threatened ,
"We have difficult times. This has left traces in liquidity," ​says
Hess.
For months, a few controversies and payment orders, which are attributable to the liquidity
situation, have been fighting. "There are still some payment instructions in the house, which
we must solve. But our group is not seriously endangered, "Hess said.
Also not by the expensive real estate project Business Tower Frauenfeld, which stands
largely empty. "We are urgently looking for tenants," admits the driving financier. The project
did not jeopardize Prosperco as it had been incorporated into a separate real estate
company. - In order to save Prosperco, Hess has to work more diligently than the PG
Partner Bank he founded in March 2000. In May 2002, the banking commission withdrew the
authorization because the organization had been "deficient" and the executive bodies "no
longer offered any guarantee for an impeccable business".
source: ​https://www.nzz.ch/article8YJCX-1.274517