Still waiting for Hotcopper to list EPY on the forum.
Not a bad start today, considering that prior to floating EPY at 20c SKG issued $1 million worth of stock at 13c, which will place some wait on the stock for a short period, there were 2 large cross trades today....hopefully that was part of them :-) Here's a recent interview with Mr Soon. He thinks E-pay will go from a market cap of $50 million (currently $38 million) to $1 billion in 5 years........lets hope so !
Wednesday, 7 December 2005
I took an unconventional path into business - not one I would recommend. But I am certain that it's better to make mistakes early than late. Youth is nothing if not resilient. I was 22 years old when I founded SkyNetGlobal and 23 when we achieved a public listing on the ASX.
I had no academic credentials to fall back on. Fortunately, I was able to recruit accomplished professionals to join my management team and we overcame the perceptions that I was too young.
Our second challenge was that we missed the technology-telecom initial public offering window and were only able to raise about $6 million instead of $60 million. As a result, our business plan has been undergoing modifications ever since. We were never able to execute our original vision, but we adapted.
We were a pioneer in international wireless hotspot solutions, securing contracts with Qantas and Starwood Hotels and Resorts, among others. We later diversified into residential broadband, leveraging our expertise in wireless internet delivery.
Advertisement Advertisement BRW magazine included SkyNetGlobal as its No. 1 communication company in its annual Fast 100 rankings. We were No. 5 overall. We had a dual listing on the AIM portion of the London Stock Exchange in February 2005.
My weeks are intense, in part because we trade in two markets: Australia and Britain. I work 16 to 20 hours a day, particularly when a deal is pending or a deadline is looming. I'm protective of my weekends. Thankfully, the people I work with on transactions include bankers and lawyers, most of whom take weekends off.
I travel at least two weeks a month. In 2005 I've made multiple trips to Asia, Britain, Europe and the US. As I get older, travel becomes more of a burden.
When I left school I thought I wasn't employable so I started a business reselling callback minutes, using a direct marketing and multi-level marketing distribution scheme. I secured an agreement with an international carrier, Global One, which gave my business momentum. We hit the market at the right time and, at its peak, the company was billing $500,000 per month. But I made a critical mistake. I had only one source of callback minutes, Global One, and when it ceased operations my business went down with it.
After that, I felt it was important to get a job, build some commercial credibility and gain some experience in a larger corporation, so I took a sales job at Primus Telecom. It was then that I recognised a forthcoming opportunity in consumer wireless internet roaming. I submitted a business plan to the managing director of Primus Telecom, advocating that Primus set up a division dedicated to wireless roaming. The managing director told me to get back to work.
I was probably one of the top salespeople in my unit at Primus, but I thought the idea was worth pursuing, so I quit and started SkyNetGlobal. My boss at Primus, Robert Naddei, left his job to join me as my first sales director.
SkyNetGlobal is about to change its name and its business as part of an acquisition. As a result, we will sell our existing SkyNetGlobal assets and focus entirely on developing our electronics payments business in Asia, where e-Pay is the market leader. In making this change, we are moving into what we believe is the fastest-growing part of the global telecommunications industry, which is pre-paid.
The market leaders in the US, Britain and Australia are all publicly traded entities with fantastic growth trajectories. Our business is the same but we are dominant in Asia, where the prevalence of pre-paid mobile subscribers is among the highest in the world.
In the next five years I expect e-Pay will grow its market capitalisation from about $50 million to more than $1 billion. We expect to relist on the Australian Stock Exchange and the AIM portion of the London Stock Exchange on January 12.
The technology sector has a lot of momentum now, with the bulk of new private equity and venture capital investments going into technology and telecommunications. New IPOs in the sector suggest that those investments are not misplaced.
I think technology and biotechnology life sciences are industries with a lot of growth ahead. Communication, media and marketing also are evolving on the back of technology, which I believe will create opportunities for people who know how to leverage technology, not just those who know how to create and package it.
Educated: Singapore until 13, Australian high school to 16, dropped out to go into business.
Professional/academic qualifications: none.
Career high: Finalising our transition to become ePay Asia. This makes us one of the largest electronic payment organisations in this vast market.
Career low: My first business failure with Global One, but you can't have success without failure. If you are going to let these things stop you, you shouldn't be in business.
Business hero: Bill Gates. He has changed the world, made a lot of money, done a huge amount for the community and he is still relatively young. An amazing story.
Chilling out: Haven't had much time for that recently. When I do get a couple of hours, I like to catch a good movie. Dramatic blockbusters are my thing.
Paul Edwards
SKG Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
