If Les does indeed have $500M invested in China, then I'm hoping that he has a contingency plan for when the Olympics are over. History has shown that after the Olympics, the places that held them typically fall into a recession for a good while (Olympic Hangover). It only makes sense too, because if a country/city invests so many resources into an event that lasts just 2 weeks, what's going to happen once that event is over, and the facilities, hotels, restaurants, etc. are no longer running at full capacity because the base population is too small?
It would really suck if Les decides to a fire sale and gets rid of McGrady and Yao for a bunch of scrubs, like Memphis did with Gasol.
Well, if Les has that much money invested in China, he might not be doing so well overseas either. China's economy is dropping too, although I'm not sure how bad since the market data isn't exactly trustworthy. To give you an idea, CPI rose by like 8% in just ONE MONTH. Basic food prices for many items has basically doubled in Beijing(not sure about the rest of China, but I believe it's not much better) over the past half a year. And yes, the post-Olympics recession will especially hit China hard, considering the amount of money poured into it.
From hooroo's post, we can officially announce: YAO will never ever be traded. He will retire as a Rockets (or might die as a Rockets?). All those Yao trading posts should be taken as a joke.
My only problem is, why is he scared of the luxury tax if he's making so much money in china? I mean I'm a Dave Ramsey beliver and have been debt free for a while, but the kinda money he's investing and making in china, a couple of million to win a ring should be a no brainer.
he isn't making money with his Rocket Capital china investments per the article posted hooroo. by the timing of his investments and the wording of the article i am going to guess that he is down a significant amount over there. my professional (yes...professional) random guess would be somewhere around -20% or more. so he basically only has one major investment that is working for him right now...the rockets. it has been a pretty great one too. i think it has returned an averaged of 13% a year since he initially bought. i don't see any pressing reason why he should start being fiscally irresponsible with that investment. has there been any major move that he was reported to shun because of money? i can't think of any off the top of my head. fwiw i think les and the rockets have been pretty willing to make the major moves when they have been there.
Les' investments in China are not quick money (like stock, funds, etc) investment. It's long term investment (e.g., manufacturing, etc).
i'm pretty sure he bought the publicly traded stocks. stocks aren't exactly quick money. clearly they are long term investments but i would be curious to see what prices they were buying. les was pretty good about selling the top with the 2 million FMD he unloaded but then he stopped selling in dec '06. he and a co-founder were dumping tons of shares right at the top. actually it looks like the co-founder's selling was because he was retiring. i guess he chose the right time to retire lol. all of his sales were automatic...about 20k-30k shares sold every 2 weeks from april 06 to dec 07. maybe les should have just left his shares on automatic sale
Le$ is ballin right now if he indeed invested in China in 2008. Maybe he even got in on this rare earth trade heh.
I didn't realize this was from nearly three years ago. It's funny how some comments are timeless :grin:
