With the aim of furthering our investigations into the asymmetric complexation of dipyrrinato ligands, a dipyrrin bearing a stereogenic centre directly adjacent to the conjugated skeleton was synthesized. The electron-withdrawing nature of the chiral 4-(2,2,2-trifluoro-1-hydroxyethyl)- substituent significantly reduced the nucleophilicity of corresponding pyrroles, such that 2,2′-symmetrically substituted bis(dipyrrin)s bearing this motif were inaccessible. Furthermore, solutions of mononuclear dipyrrinato complexes were found to be less stable to acid-catalyzed decomplexation than the corresponding dinuclear complexes.Key words: dipyrrin, dipyrromethene, complexation, electron-poor pyrrole, chirality.