Maguire: God will look after Cru if I look after Africa

‘God told me two years ago that if I would look after Africa he would look after Cru,’ Jon Maguire told Cru staff last December.

‘Cru’s financial position is sound, assets under management are not falling. We do not have an investment fund for Africa so I guess you can all see what my number one priority is,’ he wrote in an internal email.

Maguire, the son of a Baptist minister, has revealed some of the religious motivation behind his Africa Invest project in interviews with IFAtv on YouTube (see links below).

He says his new Guernsey-based Africa Transformational Agri fund will help to reduce poverty in Malawi. 'The fund's investment programme provides an economic uplift for the rural poor, tackling poverty through agricultural enterprise,' he writes in a presentation for the new fund. 

He also talks about the existing business in Malawi in a further short film divided into two parts.

Maguire returned to the UK on Friday after fulfilling 'unavoidable commitments' in Malawi since 16 March according to Cru.

On Friday we revealed the background to the company’s decision to shift its resources to Africa Invest and show how it anticipated possible problems with the Arch Cru fund range, which have been suspended.

A number of former and current Cru directors are now on the board of Africa Invest Fund Management, which Maguire chairs, and which will attempt to launch the agricultural fund in May. A roadshow for UK investors is planned to start in April. The fund will initially invest in seven farms in Malawi growing a wide range of food stuffs, including wheat, maize and beans.

Maguire’s activities in Malawi to date come under Africa Invest (Malawi), which has received a £2.4 million loan from Cru. Although £1.5 million has been repaid, auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers have cast doubt on Cru’s ability to recover the remainder.

Cru admitted in an internal email that it is ‘extremely unlikely’ the funds will re-open and staff have been reduced to just two to cope with the suspension issues.