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17-04-2017, 09:04 PM
Sniffing out good investment opportunities
The best time to do so is at an AGM, which gives an investor access to a firm's board
by Goh Eng Yeow
PUBLISHEDAPR 17, 2017, 5:00 AM SGT
For investors, one success story to aspire to would surely be that of the Japanese businessman Masayoshi Son whose company, SoftBank, owns a big chunk of the China e-commerce giant Alibaba.
In 1999, Mr Son was visited in Tokyo by an unassuming duo, Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai, who were seeking funding for their fledging website in Hangzhou, China.
Mr Son purportedly tapped his calculator as they haggled over the price, and agreed to pay US$20 million for 30 per cent of the young firm. The rest, as they say, is history.
Alibaba is now worth US$280 billion (S$392 billion). That would value SoftBank's remaining 28 per cent stake at a staggering US$78.4 billion, after it sold some shares last year. That gives the Japanese investment firm an out-of-this world return, considering its US$20 million initial outlay.
Mr Son reportedly claimed that he based the investment decision on his "sense of smell". Anyone would long to have just as keen a nose to sniff out such wonderful investment opportunities.
More details in http://www.straitstimes.com/business/sni...ortunities
The best time to do so is at an AGM, which gives an investor access to a firm's board
by Goh Eng Yeow
PUBLISHEDAPR 17, 2017, 5:00 AM SGT
For investors, one success story to aspire to would surely be that of the Japanese businessman Masayoshi Son whose company, SoftBank, owns a big chunk of the China e-commerce giant Alibaba.
In 1999, Mr Son was visited in Tokyo by an unassuming duo, Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai, who were seeking funding for their fledging website in Hangzhou, China.
Mr Son purportedly tapped his calculator as they haggled over the price, and agreed to pay US$20 million for 30 per cent of the young firm. The rest, as they say, is history.
Alibaba is now worth US$280 billion (S$392 billion). That would value SoftBank's remaining 28 per cent stake at a staggering US$78.4 billion, after it sold some shares last year. That gives the Japanese investment firm an out-of-this world return, considering its US$20 million initial outlay.
Mr Son reportedly claimed that he based the investment decision on his "sense of smell". Anyone would long to have just as keen a nose to sniff out such wonderful investment opportunities.
More details in http://www.straitstimes.com/business/sni...ortunities
Specuvestor: Asset - Business - Structure.
