A company managing Prince Andrew's private investments has been dissolved, dealing a fresh blow to the Duke of York. Urramoor Limited, over which Andrew had 'significant control', applied to be struck off and dissolved, according to documents filed to Companies House this week.
The closure comes just over a year after the firm was bailed out by a mystery donor. In December 2023, Urramoor secured £210,000 in non-redeemable shares from an anonymous source, after being £208,000 in debt. The company, originally set up as HRH Andrew Inverness in 2013, never made a profit in its nine sets of accounts.
The decision to shut down was signed by director Arthur Lancaster on January 3. This follows news that over £230,000 was withdrawn from Andrew's Pitch@Palace initiative, also run by Lancaster. The cash at hand in that firm halved from £454,979 to £220,990 in the year to March 2024, with the purpose of the withdrawal unclear.
Pitch@Palace has faced further scrutiny after it emerged that a former boss, Yang Tengbo, is suspected by UK security services of being linked to the Chinese government's United Front Work Department. Yang, who was appointed founder of the programme's enterprise in China, has been described as a 'close confidante' of Andrew. He was stopped from entering the UK in 2021 and again in 2023, with his residency rights cancelled. Yang denies the allegations, calling them 'ill-founded'.
