She just closes her eyes and think of the $$$ she gets for letting him hump her.
-
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Investments gone bad
- Thread starter LITTLEREDDOT
- Start date
She just closes her eyes and think of the $$$ she gets for letting him hump her.
One-time richest Singapore tycoon has lost 80% of his fortune
Forrest Li, chairman and group chief executive officer of Sea Ltd., loses US$17 billion in one of tech's biggest wipeouts. (PHOTO: Bloomberg)
By Yoojung Lee and Yoolim Lee
(Bloomberg) — Just a few months ago, Forrest Li had a US$22 billion fortune and was the richest person in Singapore. Now he’s emerging as one of the biggest losers from a market crash that’s wiped more than US$1 trillion from the net worth of the world’s 500 richest people this year.
It’s been a litany of unfortunate events for the Sea Ltd. founder: The tech selloff, the shutdown of its main e-commerce operation in India and disappointing earnings have tanked the company’s American depository receipts more than 80% from a peak in October. He’s still rich — worth US$4.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — but no longer enough to make the cutoff for the top 500 on the planet.
Traders are preparing for more bad news. The company, which is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings later Tuesday, is expected to post a record loss of more than US$740 million, according to the average analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg. Sea’s net loss had already widened in the final three months of last year as the firm sped up its expansion.
The downfall showcases the vulnerability of the quick wealth creation from the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic — when tech giants benefited from greater demand for their services such as Sea’s e-commerce and gaming. Higher interest rates and the tensions surrounding the war in Ukraine are further hurting growth stocks.
“Sea is going to see increasing challenges in 2022,” said Shawn Yang, managing director at Blue Lotus Capital, an independent equity research firm in Hong Kong that cut the stock’s target price to US$105 from US$180 on May 10.
The company’s e-commerce sales, its main source of revenue, could come short of its annual guidance of US$8.9 billion to US$9.1 billion as it faces intensifying competition from rivals including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and as consumers return to offline stores with the easing of Covid restrictions, Yang said.
A Sea representative declined to comment for this story.
Beyond Li, many tech entrepreneurs who saw their wealth rise on the back of the pandemic-induced growth are being hit hard by the market selloff. Eric Yuan, chief executive officer of Zoom Video Communications Inc., has lost US$4.4 billion of wealth this year, while the fortune of Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest person, is down almost US$58 billion. Ernie Garcia II and Ernie Garcia III, the father-son duo that runs used-car company Carvana Co., have shed US$15 billion combined.
Sea’s valuation collapse prompted the usually low-profile Li to reach out to his employees in March. In a 900-word internal memo, he told them not to fear and that while the drop is painful, “this is short-term pain that we have to endure to truly maximise our long-term potential.”
(Source: Bloomberg)
Analysts generally remain optimistic about Sea’s future even though the stock fell to a two-year low earlier this month. Of the 38 analysts tracked by Bloomberg covering it, 34 recommend buying it. The company’s valuation may begin to rebound as prospects improve with its geographical expansion, according to Nathan Naidu, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence.
For now, though, the shares remain volatile. After a 32% rebound amid a tech rally in the last two days of last week, they dropped 6.7% Monday. Gang Ye, one of the other company founders, has lost US$4.3 billion in wealth this year, while David Chen is no longer a billionaire.
“In the current economic environment, the level of anxiety about the effects of anticipated rate hikes by the Fed, along with rising inflation and impact from the Russian invasion of Ukraine just aren’t good for risky assets such as tech stocks,” BI’s Naidu said.
My uncle think is nobody as it wasn't exist in the 1st place I.e it was an illusion.
Same as my uncle's kopi kakis initiallee his funds was rising like dailee sunrise my uncle already told him it is a illusion onlee now it is all gone i.e sunset
SEA quarterly loss widens after consumers cool online spending
Sea's net loss in the first three months widened to US$579.8 million from US$422.7 million a year earlier. PHOTO: REUTERS
May 17, 2022
NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - Singapore's Sea Ltd. posted a wider quarterly loss as its revenue growth slowed, underscoring how online gaming and shopping are retreating from pandemic-era heights.
Its net loss in the first three months widened to US$579.8 million from US$422.7 million a year earlier, according to a statement Tuesday. Total revenue climbed 64 per cent to US$2.9 billion, the slowest pace of growth in more than four years.
Sea revised its full-year outlook for e-commerce sales, its main source of revenue, to US$8.5 billion to US$9.1 billion from its previous guidance of US$8.9 billion to US$9.1 billion. The company said in March it expects its gaming arm Garena to post US$2.9 billion to US$3.1 billion in bookings in 2022, set to be its first decline ever.
The results showcase how consumers emerging from prolonged lockdowns are cutting back on online entertainment and purchases, especially with the war in Ukraine and rising interest rates clouding the global economic outlook.
The pandemic triggered a rally in online shopping and gaming shares as consumers spent more time and money online, helping Sea's become Southeast Asia's most valuable company.
But the broader tech selloff, the shutdown of its e-commerce operation in India and disappointing earnings have wiped 81 per cent off its value since a peak in October.
Shares of Sea declined 6.7 per cent in New York on Monday.
She just get someone to pull along her nose in her twilight years... Sad.
Some young investors get burnt by cryptocurrency crash, regret recklessness; experts raise depression fears
Kanchanara/Unsplash
- One investor, Mr Low, lost about S$40,000 in the crash in just days, about 90 per cent of his total investment and a third of his savings
- The crash involving stablecoin Luna has led to concerns about suicide ideation and reckless behaviour
- One enraged investor, who reportedly lost US$2.3 million in the crash, tried to break into the Seoul home of a businessman involved in the technology behind the cryptocurrency
- Holding funds in a related token, TerraUSD, was particularly popular among some Singaporeans
- Some platforms that allow users to deposit and borrow cryptocurrencies were offering an interest rate of about 20 per cent a year for deposits of TerraUSD
BY KIMBERLY LIM
Published May 17, 2022
SINGAPORE — He was just having his breakfast when he opened up his cryptocurrency exchange application and was shocked to see his Luna tokens at US$5.28 (S$7.35) and spiralling downwards last Thursday morning (May 12). In early May, the tokens were trading above US$85 apiece.
Confused, the man, who wanted to be known only as Mr Low, immediately messaged friends who had invested in Terra, a related cryptocurrency, hoping to find out what was happening.
He said: "A few friends told me that it will repeg (to the US dollar) and Luna will stabilise, so I just held."
Mr Low, who is in his late twenties, had recently lost his job as a business associate at a consumer health company due to company cutbacks, and said that he had lost close to S$40,000. This was 90 per cent of his total investment and a third of his savings in a matter of days.
He said: "Initially, it was a lot of confusion. I was not aware, unlike now, of why the market was reacting that way and why UST (TerraUSD) had depegged (from the US dollar) and Luna was spiralling. There was some blind hope that it would repeg, so I just kept holding and not selling."
Over the past week, the cryptocurrency market went into a full meltdown after investors were spooked by the collapse of TerraUSD, or UST, one of the world’s largest so-called stablecoins.
Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to the value of traditional assets, such as the US dollar. Often promoted as a stable means of exchange, these coins are often used by traders to move funds around when speculating on other cryptocurrencies.
Last Tuesday, TerraUSD broke its 1:1 peg to the US dollar and fell as low as 75 US cents, according to price site CoinGecko. Its price is now hovering around just nine US cents.
Unlike other stablecoins that have reserves in traditional assets, TerraUSD maintains its peg through a complex algorithm that involves the use of another cryptocurrency token, Luna.
Luna, once ranked among the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies, has since plunged to virtually zero from an all time high of US$119.18 set on April 5 this year.
Luna and TerraUSD are tokens that run on the Terra network, a blockchain-based project developed by start-up Terraform Labs, that is based in Singapore.
The crash had led to concerns about suicide ideation and reckless behaviour, with one enraged investor, who had reportedly lost US$2.3 million in the crash, attempting to break into the home in the South Korean capital Seoul of Terraform Labs’ co-founder and chief executive officer, Do Kwon on Monday.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, Mr Do wrote that he feels “heartbroken about the pain” caused by the crash, adding that he has not profited from this incident and has not sold any TerraUSD tokens during the crisis.
The stability of such cryptocoins was once the cornerstone of the crypto ecosystem, with the United States Federal Reserve estimating a collective market value of all stablecoins at US$180 billion in March this year.
TODAY spoke to seven Singaporeans, aged in their 20s and 30s, whose investments in TerraUSD and Luna, ranging from S$1,500 to S$6,000, took a tumble last week.
While some were aware of the risks involved in cryptocurrencies and were sceptical when they entered the market, others had a larger risk appetite or believed that it was "risk-free".
Holding funds in TerraUSD was particularly popular among some Singaporeans, as some platforms that allow users to deposit and borrow cryptocurrencies were offering an interest rate of about 20 per cent a year for depositing TerraUSD on their platform.
And these holdings were “risk-free” because the TerraUSD tokens are pegged to the US dollar and would not lose their value, or so the investors thought.
Mr Low said that he had friends who were invested in the Terra ecosystem.
"At the time, this meant you unlocked a savings rate that beat the Singapore banks by 400 times on an annual basis. And that it was 'risk free' so lots of people jumped onto the boat. They are coping just fine as a majority of their losses are purely paper profits," he said.
Another investor, who wanted to be known only as Ashton, 37, who works as a technician, said that he lost about S$6,000 from the crash, but his portfolio was still mainly in other coins such as bitcoin and ether.
LUNA CRASH HAS RAISED CONCERNS ABOUT SUICIDE IDEATION
However, many others saw their life savings wiped clean over the span of two days, prompting suicidal thoughts in some of them. Some personal finance writers have raised concerns about suicide ideation following the crash of Luna.At least one member of a Telegram group chat centred around the local Chain Debrief cryptocurrency online publication have spoken about attempting suicide, which has been a “cause for concern” for Mr Jacky Yap, the publication’s founder.
He told TODAY in an interview last Friday: “We remind everyone to not do anything foolish, and if anyone needs to talk to someone, they can always reach out to us. We also remind everyone that we all have earning power and that whatever is lost can always be earned back.”
Indeed, this is a trend happening in other parts of the world, with moderators of the Reddit threads on Terra and Luna pinning a post with suicide hotline numbers, over concerns voiced in the thread.
The Woke Salaryman, a page on personal finance, with more than 316,000 followers on Instagram and almost the same number of likes on Facebook, posted a series of graphics on Tuesday reassuring people who lost money to the crash.
The graphics were captioned: “ We typically don't like to post three times a week. But this is important”.
The post on Facebook had garnered more than 10,000 shares and 8,900 reactions five days after it was posted. The co-founders behind the page also received several direct messages on social media platforms, with fellow investors airing their grievances.
Speaking to TODAY in a Zoom interview last Friday, Woke Salaryman co-founder He Ruiming said: “Quite a few people sent direct messages to us. We are in quite a few crypto groups as well so I see quite a lot of people talking about being depressed, saying that everything is hopeless now. So we thought it would be important to put out a message.
“People came to confide because they knew I invested as well. They asked me: ‘What should I do?’ By the time the news came out, there was already very little people could do.”
YOUNG INVESTORS TRYING TO MOVE ON
Some were “mentally prepared” for the crash, while others are looking for ways to move on.Mr Low said: “Mentally I am okay, my faith reminds me that life is bigger than a financial portfolio, and though I was irresponsible in risk management, I would accept the mistake and move on and not harp on it.”
Personal finance writers and bloggers are urging young investors to try to find ways to recover from the crash.
Mr Timothy Ho, managing editor and co-founder of investing website Dollars and Sense, said: “If you are young, it’s not the end of the world. Maybe you lost money that could have paid for one to two holidays to Europe which you didn’t get to go due to the pandemic, or the down payment to a car. It’s okay to move on.”
Many emphasised the importance of having a diversified portfolio, which should be a key takeaway from the crash.
“Having a diversified portfolio is vital because if you lose a huge chunk of your portfolio at once, it’s hard to recover. A diversified portfolio may not give us the highest possible returns, but will protect us in bad times like this,” Mr Ho said.
S'pore start-up Zilingo fires CEO Ankiti Bose, reserves right to pursue legal action
Ms Ankiti Bose said her employment was terminated on grounds of "insubordination", while Zilingo said the ouster followed a probe into complaints of serious financial irregularities. PHOTO: ZILINGO
Choo Yun Ting
Business Correspondent
May 20, 2022
SINGAPORE - E-commerce platform Zilingo has terminated its chief executive Ankiti Bose, also the co-founder of the firm, following an investigation into complaints of serious financial irregularities.
In a statement on Friday (May 20), the Singapore-based firm said it decided to terminate Ms Bose’s employment “with cause” and that it reserves the right to pursue appropriate legal action.
The start-up, which counts Sequoia Capital India, Singapore state investor Temasek, and the Economic Development Board’s investment arm EDBI among its investors, had earlier suspended Ms Bose on March 31.
In its statement, Zilingo said that Ms Bose brought “certain harassment-related issues pertaining to past time periods” to the attention of the firm’s board on April 11.
These issues did not include any harassment complaints against investors or their nominees, it added, noting that a top consulting firm had been engaged to look into the claims brought forth.
“The investigation has concluded that the company took appropriate action and followed due process to address these complaints that were brought to their notice, contrary to media reports that have suggested that the suspension and investigation into Ankiti Bose were aimed at suppressing the said harassment claims,” Zilingo said.
Bloomberg News reported that Ms Bose said in a separate statement that her employment was terminated on grounds of insubordination, after being suspended on the basis of an “anonymous whistle-blower complaint”.
In its statement, Zilingo said: “The company is deeply pained and disappointed to see the manner in which the board, investors and employees have been constantly attacked through ostensibly leaked and fake information, along with what unfortunately appears to be paid and defamatory social media campaigns throughout the investigation period.”
This has cause irreparable damage to the start-up, board, staff and backers, it added.
The company noted that following the recall of loans by debt holders, an independent financial adviser was appointed and is in the midst of assessing options for the business.
More information will be provided in due course, it said.
Ms Bose had earlier been suspended from her duties while the start-up’s accounting practices were investigated. Regulatory checks show that Zilingo’s last financial statement was filed in 2019.
Ms Bose, who co-founded the company with Mr Dhruv Kapoor in 2015, has disputed claims of wrongdoing.
Commenting on corporate governance issues that start-ups face, NUS Business School’s Professor Mak Yuen Teen noted that such issues are not uncommon. Start-ups here and elsewhere have faced the likes of toxic culture, product fraud, financial irregularities and conflict of interest, he noted.
“Founders are by their nature entrepreneurial and risk takers, and may push the boundaries. They are also often charismatic and able to convince people to buy into their vision,” he said.
Prof Mak added that with problems emerging in start-ups, investors may be more careful about due diligence before investing and may demand better corporate governance, and start-ups that are not prepared for these may find it harder to attract investors.
Start-ups need to ensure that they have at least the basic corporate governance in place, he said.
This includes measures such as having accounts audited by a respectable audit firm on a timely basis, having proper internal controls for key business operations, having an internal audit of the key risk areas, and having a properly constituted board with some independent members.
Singapore Institute of Directors vice-chairman Adrian Chan said that while he does not believe confidence in the boards or founders of start-ups has necessarily been shaken by Zilingo’s situation, there are lessons to be learnt from this case and the issues that have surfaced.
Mr Chan, who also serves on the Enterprise Board of the SMU Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, noted that start-up boards and founders should be trained and equipped with the necessary governance skills and knowledge to run their businesses effectively.
“Paying heed to corporate governance makes good business sense and should not be viewed as a burden. And if boards fail to recognise this early on, they may find themselves paying a higher price later on,” he said.
Singaporean actor-singer Huang Jinglun laments stock market losses during pandemic
Huang Jinglun revealed that he bought stocks based on a friend's recommendation. PHOTO: WONG JINGLUN/INSTAGRAM
Yamini Chinnuswamy
Correspondent
May 23, 2022
TAIPEI - When the Covid-19 pandemic prevented international travel, Singaporean singer-actor Huang Jinglun decided to channel his travel funds into buying stocks. However, the investment went awry.
In an episode of Taiwanese variety show Like It Tonightbroadcast last Wednesday (May 18), he revealed that he bought stocks - which he did not name - based on a friend's recommendation.
"(The value of) this will go up tomorrow, I've seen it for a long time! You will never see this price again in the future," his friendly reportedly told him.
The 38-year-old, who is married with a son, said he went ahead with the transaction. He did not specifyhow much he invested, but noted: "Sure enough, I have never seen this price again" as the stock price consequently sank.
Worse still, Huang later found that the friend hadn't actually bought the stock himself.
" What kind of mentality is that?" he lamented.
Huang, who is based on Taiwan, first found fame in 2008, when he took part in Taiwanese reality singing competition One Million Star, where he finished sixth. He also appeared in the 2009 Taiwanese idol drama Momo Love.
Some young investors get burnt by cryptocurrency crash, regret recklessness; experts raise depression fears
- An investor in Singapore lost about S$40,000 in days, about 90 per cent of his total investment and a third of his savings
- The crash of stablecoin Luna led to concerns about suicide ideation and reckless behaviour
- One enraged investor in South Korea tried to break into the home of a businessman involved in the technology behind the cryptocurrency
- Holding funds in a related token, TerraUSD, was particularly popular among some Singaporeans
- Some platforms were offering an interest rate of about 20 per cent a year for deposits of TerraUSD
BY DARYL CHOO
BY KIMBERLY LIM
Published May 17, 2022
SINGAPORE — He was having his breakfast when he looked at the cryptocurrency exchange application on his device and saw to his shock that the price of the Luna tokens he had bought at US$5.28 (S$7.35) was spiralling downwards last Thursday morning (May 12). In early May, the tokens were trading above US$85 apiece.
Confused, the man, who wanted to be known only as Mr Low, immediately sent a message to his friends who had invested in Terra, a related cryptocurrency, hoping to find out what was happening.
He said: "A few friends told me that it will re-peg (to the US dollar) and Luna will stabilise, so I just held (on to it)."
Mr Low, who is in his late 20s, recently lost his job as a business associate at a consumer health company due to company cutbacks. He said that he had lost close to S$40,000 in a matter of days. This was 90 per cent of his total investment and a third of his savings.
He said: "Initially, there was a lot of confusion. I was not aware, unlike now, of why the market was reacting that way and why TerraUSD had de-pegged (from the US dollar) and Luna was spiralling. There was some blind hope that it would re-peg, so I just kept holding and not selling."
Over the past week, the cryptocurrency market went into a full meltdown after investors were spooked by the collapse of TerraUSD, or UST, one of the world’s largest so-called stablecoins.
Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to the value of traditional assets such as the US dollar. Often promoted as a stable means of exchange, these coins are often used by traders to move funds around when speculating on other cryptocurrencies.
Last Tuesday, TerraUSD broke its 1:1 peg to the US dollar and fell as low as 75 US cents, based on figures from price site CoinGecko. Its price is now hovering around just nine US cents.
Unlike other stablecoins that have reserves in traditional assets, TerraUSD maintains its peg through a complex algorithm that involves the use of another cryptocurrency token, Luna.
Luna, once ranked among the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies, has since plunged to virtually zero from an all-time high of US$119.18 set on April 5 this year.
Luna and TerraUSD are tokens that run on the Terra network, a blockchain-based project developed by start-up Terraform Labs, which is based in Singapore.
The crash led to concerns about suicide ideation and reckless behaviour, with one enraged investor, who had reportedly lost US$2.3 million in the crash, trying to break into the home of Terraform Labs’ co-founder and chief executive officer Do Kwon on Monday in the South Korean capital of Seoul.
In a series of tweets last Saturday, Mr Do wrote on Twitter that he was “heartbroken about the pain” caused by the crash, adding that he had not profited from this incident and had not sold any TerraUSD tokens during the crisis.
The stability of such cryptocoins was once the cornerstone of the crypto ecosystem, with the United States Federal Reserve estimating a collective market value of all stablecoins at US$180 billion in March this year.
TODAY spoke to seven Singaporeans, aged in their 20s and 30s, whose investments in TerraUSD and Luna, ranging from S$1,500 to S$6,000, took a tumble last week.
Although some were aware of the risks involved in cryptocurrencies and were sceptical when they entered the market, others had a larger risk appetite or believed that it was "risk-free".
Holding funds in TerraUSD was particularly popular among some Singaporeans, as some platforms that allow users to deposit and borrow cryptocurrencies were offering an interest rate of about 20 per cent a year to people who deposit TerraUSD with them.
And these holdings were “risk-free” because the TerraUSD tokens are pegged to the US dollar and would not lose their value — or so the investors thought.
Mr Low said that he had friends who were invested in the Terra ecosystem.
"At the time, this meant you unlocked a savings rate that beat the Singapore banks by 400 times on an annual basis. And that it was 'risk free', so many people jumped onto the boat. They are coping just fine as a majority of their losses are purely paper profits," he added.
Another investor, 37, who wanted to be known only as Ashton and who works as a technician, said that he lost about S$6,000 from the crash, but his portfolio was still mainly in other coins such as bitcoin and ether.
DEPRESSIVE AND SUICIDAL THOUGHTS
However, many others saw their life savings wiped clean over the span of two days, prompting some of them to have suicidal thoughts. There were personal finance writers who have raised concerns about suicide ideation following the crash of Luna.At least one member of a Telegram chat group centred around the Singapore-based Chain Debrief cryptocurrency online publication has spoken about attempting suicide, which has been a “cause for concern” for Mr Jacky Yap, the publication’s founder.
Mr Yap told TODAY in an interview last Friday: “We remind everyone to not do anything foolish, and if anyone needs to talk to someone, they can always reach out to us. We also remind everyone that we all have earning power and that whatever is lost can always be earned back.”
Indeed, this is a trend happening in other parts of the world, with moderators of the Reddit threads on Terra and Luna pinning a post with suicide hotline numbers, over concerns voiced in the thread.
The Woke Salaryman, a page on personal finance, with more than 316,000 followers on Instagram and almost the same number of likes on Facebook, posted a series of graphics on Tuesday reassuring people who had lost money in the crash.
The graphics were captioned: “We typically don't like to post three times a week. But this is important”.
The post on Facebook had more than 10,000 shares and 8,900 reactions five days after it was posted. The co-founders behind the page also received several direct messages on social media platforms, with fellow investors airing their grievances.
Speaking to TODAY in a Zoom interview last Friday, Woke Salaryman co-founder He Ruiming said: “Quite a few people sent direct messages to us. We are in quite a few crypto groups as well, so I see quite a number of people talking about being depressed, saying that everything is hopeless now. So we thought it would be important to put out a message.
“People came to confide (in me) because they knew I invested as well. They asked me, ‘What should I do?’ By the time the news came out, there was already very little people could do.”
LESSONS FROM THE CRASH
Some investors were “mentally prepared” for the crash, while others were looking for ways to move on from the episode.Mr Low said: “Mentally, I am okay. My faith reminds me that life is bigger than a financial portfolio, and though I was irresponsible in risk management, I would accept the mistake and move on and not harp on it.”
Personal finance writers and bloggers are urging young investors to try to find ways to recover from the crash.
Mr Timothy Ho, managing editor and co-founder of investing website Dollars and Sense, said: “If you are young, it’s not the end of the world. Maybe you lost money that could have paid for one to two holidays to Europe that you didn’t get to go due to the pandemic, or the down payment to a car. It’s okay to move on.”
Many emphasised the importance of having a diversified portfolio, which should be a key takeaway from the crash.
“Having a diversified portfolio is vital because if you lose a huge chunk of your portfolio at once, it’s hard to recover. A diversified portfolio may not give us the highest possible returns, but will protect us in bad times like this,” Mr Ho from Dollars and Sense website said.
WHERE TO GET HELP
- National Care Hotline: 1800-202-6868
- Fei Yue's Online Counselling Service: eC2.sg website (Mon to Fri, 10am to 12pm, 2pm to 5pm)
- Institute of Mental Health's Mental Health Helpline: 6389-2222 (24 hours)
- Samaritans of Singapore: 1800-221-4444 (24 hours) / 1-767 (24 hours)
- Singapore Association for Mental Health: 1800-283-7019 (Mon to Fri, 9am to 6pm)
- Silver Ribbon Singapore: 6386-1928 / 6509-0271 (Mon to Fri, 9am to 6pm)
- Tinkle Friend: 1800-274-4788 (Mon to Fri, 2.30pm to 5pm)
- Touchline (Counselling): 1800-377-2252 (Mon to Fri, 9am to 6pm)
Unicorn becomes uni-con. From billion dollar valuation to zero value.
Zilingo's co-founder Dhruv Kapoor briefly made the pitch for a buyout, a surprise, last-minute development. PHOTO: ZILINGO
June 21, 2022
SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - Zilingo's board of directors is weighing options for the embattled Singapore start-up after a financial adviser to the company said liquidation is the most viable solution and its co-founder presented an 11th-hour pitch for a management buyout.
The board members met on Monday (June 20) to hear the alternatives, including a presentation from adviser Deloitte to sell off the company's assets, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Co-founder Dhruv Kapoor briefly made the pitch for a buyout, a surprise, last-minute development, said the sources, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private.
The board meeting ended without a decision on Zilingo's fate, they said.
Directors will consider Deloitte's findings as well as the new management buyout proposal, and they are trying to set a date for a new gathering.
Zilingo and Deloitte representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr Kapoor proposed the buyout to the Singapore-based company's board late on Sunday.
He has secured commitments from a small group of new investors including a United States private equity firm, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.
The offer detailed plans for the investor group to inject US$8 million (S$11.1 million) in new equity in a newly incorporated entity in tranches, while the remaining assets and the old corporate entity would be liquidated in due course.
Ms Ankiti Bose, the start-up's ousted chief executive, endorsed Mr Kapoor's preliminary proposal minutes after it was sent out to existing shareholders.
In her e-mail, as seen by Bloomberg News, Ms Bose urged investors to see beyond their "personal differences" and support the initiative.
Allegations of financial irregularities in March prompted an investigation into Zilingo, valued at US$970 million in 2019, and led to the dismissal of co-founder Ms Bose as CEO in May.
Her ouster plunged the once high-flying start-up into crisis and sent shock waves through South-east Asia and India's technology industry.
Zilingo's board to weigh options including liquidation or buyout
Zilingo's co-founder Dhruv Kapoor briefly made the pitch for a buyout, a surprise, last-minute development. PHOTO: ZILINGO
June 21, 2022
SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - Zilingo's board of directors is weighing options for the embattled Singapore start-up after a financial adviser to the company said liquidation is the most viable solution and its co-founder presented an 11th-hour pitch for a management buyout.
The board members met on Monday (June 20) to hear the alternatives, including a presentation from adviser Deloitte to sell off the company's assets, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Co-founder Dhruv Kapoor briefly made the pitch for a buyout, a surprise, last-minute development, said the sources, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private.
The board meeting ended without a decision on Zilingo's fate, they said.
Directors will consider Deloitte's findings as well as the new management buyout proposal, and they are trying to set a date for a new gathering.
Zilingo and Deloitte representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr Kapoor proposed the buyout to the Singapore-based company's board late on Sunday.
He has secured commitments from a small group of new investors including a United States private equity firm, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.
The offer detailed plans for the investor group to inject US$8 million (S$11.1 million) in new equity in a newly incorporated entity in tranches, while the remaining assets and the old corporate entity would be liquidated in due course.
Ms Ankiti Bose, the start-up's ousted chief executive, endorsed Mr Kapoor's preliminary proposal minutes after it was sent out to existing shareholders.
In her e-mail, as seen by Bloomberg News, Ms Bose urged investors to see beyond their "personal differences" and support the initiative.
Allegations of financial irregularities in March prompted an investigation into Zilingo, valued at US$970 million in 2019, and led to the dismissal of co-founder Ms Bose as CEO in May.
Her ouster plunged the once high-flying start-up into crisis and sent shock waves through South-east Asia and India's technology industry.
Brokers’ take: Maybank downgrades Grab to ‘sell’ on mounting recession risks
FRI, JUL 08, 2022
YONG HUI TING[email protected]@yhuitingBT
Maybank Research on Friday (Jul 8) slashed the target price for Grab by almost half, from US$4.25 to US$2.29 and downgraded the counter from “buy” to “sell” to factor in the new risks from a potential recession.
BT PHOTO: YONG HUI TING
RECESSION risks are mounting for South-east Asian superapp Grab, as capital market expectations appear to have changed on investor projections of further rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.
Maybank Research on Friday (Jul 8) slashed the target price for Grab by almost half, from US$4.25 to US$2.29 and downgraded the counter from “buy” to “sell” to factor in the new risks from a potential recession.
The brokerage was unimpressed by Grab’s recent pivot to software as a service (Saas) via GrabMaps, calling it a “desperate wringing for cash flows where it can”, and likened the move similar to an act of “pawning the family jewels”.
Analyst Samuel Tan was also sceptical of the ride-hailing giant’s target of 10 per cent of the US$1 billion mapping market by 2025 as he foresees a “more challenging capital expenditure situation” amongst other technology platforms, which are a key customer segment for GrabMaps.
“Exposing its APIs could make Grab vulnerable to IP risks, such as scraping and copying by other technology rivals, eroding its edge over time,” said Tan.
Saas is a software distribution model in which a cloud provider hosts applications and makes them available to end users over the Internet. Through this model, an independent software vendor may contract a third-party cloud provider to host the application.
The analyst further believes there is greater investor favour over more mature SaaS and superapp names, such as Salesforce and Tencent, noting that these companies have not experienced as great a fall in share price as Grab. From the start of Q3 2021, Grab’s counter has fallen about 78 per cent, whereas Salesforce and Tencent were down 28 per cent over the same period.
“We see Grab as still being in a transitionary phase, having neither a mini-apps ecosystem nor a meaningful recurring SaaS revenue stream, and therefore, increasingly disfavoured by investors,” Tan said.
The research house however, capped its price floor expectations of US$1.35 to Grab’s share price after taking into account the firm’s PIPE (private investment in public equity) cash injection of US$4.3 billion in Q4 2021, which Tan believes was “well-timed” in shoring up Grab’s finances.
Additionally, the tech company can also benefit from improvements in the mobility segment as the region adapts to living with Covid-19, such as the resumption of GrabShare, further digital bank ventures in Philippines and Thailand and more mini-apps features in the style of other superapps.
Other upside factors include an improvement in competitive position from coalescing of the Grab-Singtel-Emtek-Bukalapak alliance into a multi-prong strategy in Indonesia against GoTo, and the easing of monetary policy by the US Fed.
Noble Group fined $12.6 million for misleading financial statements after 4-year probe
MAS imposed the $12.6 million civil penalty on Noble Group for publishing misleading information and breaching the Securities and Futures Act. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Ovais Subhani
Senior Business Correspondent
Aug 24, 2022
SINGAPORE - Noble Group Limited (NGL) has been fined $12.6 million by the Singapore authorities, capping a nearly four-year probe into what was once Asia's largest commodity trader before its collapse amid accusations of improper accounting and billions of dollars in losses.
The joint investigations by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) and the Commercial Affairs Department, which began in November 2018, "involved complex accounting issues and required assistance from overseas authorities", the agencies said in a joint statement on Wednesday (Aug 24).
MAS imposed the $12.6 million civil penalty on the firm for publishing misleading information in its financial statements in a breach of the Securities and Futures Act.
In addition, Acra issued "stern warnings" to two former directors of its then subsidiary Noble Resources International (NRI) for failing to prepare and table annual financial statements that complied with local accounting standards in a breach of the Companies Act.
The Public Accountants Oversight Committee also issued orders against the auditors of NRI from Ernst and Young in relation to the financial statements for 2012 to 2016.
The joint investigations revealed that NGL and NRI had applied an incorrect accounting treatment to some marketing agreements with mine owners and coal producers by classifying them as financial instruments instead of service contracts.
This inflated their reported profits and net assets, the statement said, NGL's publication of materially misleading financial statements from 2016 to 2018 was likely to have induced the sale or purchase by investors of NGL's securities listed on the Singapore Exchange.
Noble, which once had a market value of more than US$10 billion (S$13.9 billion) and was seen as a challenger to global commodity giants such as Glencore, embarked on a US$2 billion spending spree in 2009-2010.
As its debt burden ballooned in the following years and losses piled up, an unknown analyst group called Iceberg Research published in 2015 a scathing critique of Noble’s accounting practices, which the firm denied.
In 2018, the firm collapsed into insolvency with US$1.5 billion in debt and was forced to restructure. Investors took fright and short sellers including Muddy Waters took aim at its shares.
The Nobel saga left many of its investors, including those in Singapore, with hefty losses.
Assistant chief executive of Acra, Ms Kuldip Gill, said: "Acra expects financial statements to reflect a true and fair view of the financial position and performance of the company.
"Acra will continue to enforce accounting standards and take those involved in the financial reporting chain to task for unreliable information and/or non-compliance with the prescribed accounting and auditing standards."
Noble Resources Trading Holdings (NRTH), which emerged after Noble Group’s restructuring, welcomed the conclusion of the Singapore investigation.
Its executive chairman Matt Hinds noted that NRTH, which has been under new ownership and management since December 2018, is now a separate business unrelated to Noble Group, with different owners, directors, senior management and external auditors.
“We are looking forward to continuing to work with our suppliers and serve our customers, building on the strong start to 2022,” said Mr Hinds in a statement on Wednesday.
Noble was one of several high-profile financial cases under investigation by the Singapore authorities in the past few years. Cases are ongoing for Hyflux, Eagle Hospitality Trust, and Hui Xun Asset Management along with Vickers Venture Partners.
Ms Loo Siew Yee, MAS' assistant managing director for policy, payments and financial crime, said materially false or misleading statements by listed entities have no place in Singapore's capital markets.
"If left unchecked, they will erode investors' trust in the quality of information released by issuers and have an adverse impact on the integrity of our capital markets. The present action demonstrates that MAS takes breaches of disclosure obligations seriously and will take firm action against persons found to have fallen short," she said.
Forum: Time to set up Ombudsman Office to seek recourse for aggrieved investors
Aug 27, 2022The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has imposed a civil penalty of $12.6 million on Noble Group for publishing misleading information in its financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 2012 to 2016 (Noble Group fined $12.6 million for misleading financial statements after 4-year probe, Aug 24).
The penalty looks like a substantial amount but in reality, it is only a minuscule percentage compared with its once market value of more than $13 billion.
More importantly, how will the aggrieved investors seek recourse, especially the retail investors, who have neither the resources nor legal expertise to do so?
Thousands of investors have lost substantial amounts of money and some even their life savings, and are suffering in silence.
Noble, when it was listed on the Singapore Exchange, used to be a top volume counter, resulting in many investors involved in it and who are now bearing the brunt of this failed investment due to no fault of their own.
It is now more critical than ever for the MAS to institute processes or set up an Ombudsman Office with some urgency to hear investor grievances and seek recourse for aggrieved investors.
There are many other companies listed in the Singapore Exchange that have been suspended and under investigation for a long time, with no indication of when investigations will be concluded.
Meanwhile, the investors are waiting patiently for the outcome of these investigations and whether they will be able to recoup at least some of their money.
It is about time the MAS addressed this critical issue of trust in our capital markets and rebuild the much-needed investor confidence, the lack of which has been plaguing our markets for some time.
S. Nallakaruppan
President
The Society of Remisiers (Singapore)
50k down the drain for me.
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