Monday, 28 July 2008

Crossing that Divide

Last week, I received an email advertising the $Unlimited Investment Challenge 2008. This is an event jointly organised by UK Trade & Investment and Unlimited Magazine.

Last year, Pingar was shortlisted. The experience we gained was substantial. It focused us on a number of issues around our own investment readiness. I would recommend any New Zealand business looking to raise investor funds to take part.

Over the past few weeks, I have been at the sharp end of a number of investor presentations. Certain parameters have emerged and these have been consistent.

According to the professionals, despite the global 'credit crunch', there is a lot of liquidity in the NZ investor marketplace at present. There are also a number of good investment opportunities. That's all positive. On the flip side, the number of deals actually being completed is very small. That's not so positive. It's all a bit tad confusing.

NZ investors have never been big on risk. The recent fall in property prices and the ongoing collapse of confidence in the finance company sector appears to have increased the aversion to risk. 'De-risking' an opportunity is now 'de rigour'. The problem is this can also devalue the potential upside. Bland is not always good.

It would be interesting to get a better take on the deals that have actually been completed this year in the ICT sector. Do they have any themes in common? The problem at present is not just a lack of data in this space. I guess the lack of actual deals does not help.

Securing investor funds is no easy task. The lessons learnt at the upcoming $Unlimited Investment Challenge 2008 can only help.

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