Paresh Raja’s £200,000 watch raised red flags years before £1.3-billion MFS collapse
Years before the dramatic collapse of UK mortgage lender Market Financial Solutions (MFS), a luxury watch worn its founder Paresh Raja became an unlikely warning sign for a wary investor.Paresh Raja, the founder of MFSIn 2019, Paresh Raja, the man behind MFS, turned up to meetings wearing a Richard Mille timepiece worth upwards of £200,000. For one potential investor, the display of wealth did not signal success, but rather raised questions.An expensive watch indeedAccording to the Financial Times report, Asif Godall, then co-chief investment officer at Cairn Capital, decided not to invest in MFS back in 2019 — in part because he was put off Paresh Raja’s expensive Richard Mille timepiece.Godall recalled being struck the ‘watch-to-house ratio’, noting that the Richard Mille watch was worth about half the value of his North London home.Here’s what the FT piece said:Paresh Raja, MFS’s director, sported a Richard Mille timepiece that can cost upwards of £200,000. A contact of Godall estimated the watch was about half the value of Raja’s north London home at the time. Godall decided to pass up on the opportunity to invest in MFS.(Also read:
