Mobile Wallet JB Grand Opening

Earlier today, we were at Grand Opening of Mobile Wallet Johor Bahru at the newly furnished HQ at Permas Jaya. We had a nice chat with the Chief Technology Officer of Mobile Wallet, Mr Rey Gan...

From left: Me, Rey Gan (CTO / Director, Mobile Wallet) & Michael

3rd Expo Central China 2008 Promotion Seminar

Singapore Business Federation invited me and Michael to the 3rd Expo Central China 2008 Promotion Seminar.

It was a great occasion where we met up with numerous China delegates. Here's one of the photos:


From left: Me, Mr Zhan Bisheng (Vice-Inspector, The Department of Commerce of Hubei Province) and Michael.

Pre-IPO Offerings

We, at Octagon, are recently dealing with a very good pre-IPO offering... Widely known as the next Alibaba.com on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, China Shenzhou Union Telecommunication Technology Co Ltd is going to be listed via RTO (Reverse takeover) by March 2008.

Generally, you want your pre-IPO share to gap up in great value when it officially listed on the stock market. This is one type of instrument that you earn 'fast money' in a short period of time, typically within 100 days!

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But exactly what is Pre-IPO?

Pre-IPO equity is the issuance of equity by a company prior to a stock market listing. Don't confuse this with 'private investment' or 'angel investing'. Here are some basic guidelines that may help you to find deals and what to look for when choosing what pre-IPOs to invest in:

1. Listen to Everybody. This is probably a controversial one to start off with, because there are so many jokers and dreamers out there who have zero chance of getting their issue, or that of their clients issue (in the case of brokers) off the ground.

Talking to everyone will also allow you to get a feel for who is good in the space and who isn't when dealing with brokers. I read an excellent quote on the net the other day "Even a blind squirrel sometimes finds a nut in the forest". This is a good quote to bear in mind when you are dealing with brokers you don't rate. Sooner or later they may stumble on something interesting.

2. Read the prospectus. Obvious? Most people don't get beyond the nice blurb in the first 15 pages.

The best places to look are 'Risk Factors' and 'Statutory and General Information'. Risk factors will, more often than not, be generic but may bring up something for further research.

The 'Stats and Gens' should give you a better idea of the company itself. Look at the history section. This should tell you how many shares are authorised (meaning how many shares they could issue) and the issued share capital (meaning how many shares they have issued). The issued share capital will tell you, for example, that there have been 10,000,000 shares issued and they are fully paid up.

Check out and 'loans from directors'. There simply shouldn't be any. I would be hugely suspicious if there were any outstanding loans because why would the directors be asking you to invest at a certain price but would not be prepared to capitalise their loans? They either believe in the company or they don't. If they haven't converted their loans it would be a pass for me.

Check out if any director has been involved in companies liquidated previously. This is point that I argue with people on. Some see failed companies as a bad thing, I believe that people grow by learning from their mistakes, don't write the company or director off because he has made errors, but do look at the circumstances of these errors.

Check out how much management owns of the shares. If its above 75% after the offer, be careful, there are a lot of things that can be done by someone holding 75% of the shares that may be against the interest of shareholders. If it is less than 30%, ask yourself whether there is enough to lose or gain from the success or failure of the company for the directors. I like to see between 40%-60% (obviously depending on the size of the company and the stage of investment).

Check out other shareholders. If you see Warren Buffet in there, chances are it is a good one to look at.

3. Do your Research. An obvious one, but a crucial one. Check out the sector, the management, the investors, the concept, the product, the accounts… everything. If you find that the information you come up with is beyond your knowledge then ask someone who knows about such things. If it is still beyond you and you cannot rely on other known investors to have done the research, pass.

4. Make a Move, but don't Over Do It. By all means, if you think you have discovered the next Google and want to invest your life savings, go ahead. But don't complain if it doesn't work out.

Agricultural Farmland Investment

Agricultural Farmland Investment - it's like a combination of bonds meet land investment. Basically, you invest in a managed agricultural farmland (arable crops, biofuels & carbon credits).

With the growing demand for renewable energies and food in the World, this is a unique opportunity for investors to buy arable land. The land will be used to grow carbon offset crops, which will generate a high annual income and capital growth.


The key features of this investment are:

• 10% Guaranteed annual return (from the harvests)
• Estimated 15% to 30% annual capital appreciation on the land itself
• Freehold
• Liquidity is there: Free to sell any time at market value (after factoring the capital appreciation)
• Investment and returns can be in SGD or USD (so you can consider buying in USD now and sell in the currency that favors you in the future.)
• HSBC insured!

This may suit you quite well if you are looking at high liquidity investment.

KL, Mike & Ernest!

Photo taken at OG Bugis 'Ah Ma' Cafe.

From left:
CHOO Koon Lip (Investment Strategist, Octagon Global Alliances)
Michael CHONG (Director, Octagon Global Alliances)
Ernest NG (Consultant, Info Masters Services)

Wine Investment

A lot of instruments in the investment market are synthetic and not supported by true assets. But, have you ever considered fine wine investments?

Fine wines investments are what I called real assets that are not subjected to the volatility of the stock market. Though very new in Singapore, fine wine investment is not new and can be one very solid investment.

In fact, major private banks like BNP Paribas and Societe Generale are offering wine investment to high net worth clients.


Think of a new combination of 'Investing and Drinking with Passion'!

Investment Evaluation

On Wednesday, I just met a friend telling me that he just invested in the best investment. He invested in Malaysian plantations that required him to hang on for 23 years; the investment will be giving him 8% returns per annum for the first 3 years, and subsequently 11% (and above) for the remaining 20 years.

As an Investment Strategist, I strongly believe that there is no such thing as a best investment. A best investment, based on our Investment Evaluation model, is one that fits your capital base, your risk profile, your required fund liquidity and your lifestyle and habits.

So next time, you hear your financial planners or friends telling you that theirs are the Best Investment opportunities available, do evaluate for yourself.

Early Retirement!

I'm not a strong believer of Insurance agents planning your financial and wealth nowadays. Yes, you do need at least some basic health & medical insurance policy to protect yourself. But, the next thing is basically looking into investments and growing your money.

This is the typical insurance model where you work and save for your whole lifetime till your retirement age. And when you retire, you have to downsize yourself (whether is it your house, your car, and all your daily expenses etc) and your equity level starts to fall. But when if you out-live your retirement fund?

At OCTAGON, I advocate people to look into EARLY RETIREMENT PLANNING (ERP) with us. With ERP, you don't have to worry when your retirement funds will run out and you'll be able to retire earlier with a bigger pools of assets generating ongoing passive income for you.


What you see here is the revised Capital Preservation Model. A typical Capital Preservation Model is one where you see your money continue to grow (i.e. positive gradient) after retirement.

So what you are seeing here is that you don't have to downsize yourself. I called it the Early Retirement Model. In fact, we believe that when you save and invest in assets (like properties etc) till your retirement, this is the time you should spend on yourself and your family.

Go tour around the world (this is the dream of many people around), do something you never do before (remember you are still young compared to the typical retired guy next door!), buy a bigger apartment (another asset for you again), drive a better car etc... You deserve because you PLAN!

First post!

A short introduction on OCTAGON GLOBAL ALLIANCES PTE LTD:

MISSION

OCTAGON GLOBAL ALLIANCES dedicates to provide a systematic platform for individuals to embark on a financial journey towards a better life and create financial abundance for themselves. We do this through ongoing research and resources development on the global business and financial environment.

VISION

To create the leading business network and provide individuals the financial advantages to achieve real-world financial success with the best business, trading and investment opportunities regionally and globally.