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The market is efficient and smart, but only to the point of the average smartness of all its investors. Hence it allows companies that spectacularly generate low or even negative return on capital to exist for very long periods of time.
The No.1 ranking company that achieve this tremendous feat would probably be Chartered Semiconductors, our beloved high tech foundry.
Over the past decade, the company had lost over a billion dollars culmulatively, burnt two billon SGD of cash and generated a spectacular ROE of negative 6%. It has never paid a cash dividend in its entire existence and have asked for money countless times.
Considering that cost of capital is around 6% (see previous post), Chartered failed to even come close. In fact, Chartered helped investors LOSE 6% every year. Yet the market cap of Chartered had been around S$2bn for the good part of the past 10 yrs. (its peak was a whopping S$7bn during the IT bubble and trough a miserable S$300mn during the Lehman shock.) Why would such companies exist in a rational, efficient world? Read more...[caption id="attachment_3575" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Photo by DraconianRain"][/caption]
The market is efficient and smart, but only to the point of the average smartness of all its investors. Hence it allows companies that spectacularly generate low or even negative return on capital to exist for very long periods of time.
The No.1 ranking company that achieve this tremendous feat would probably be Chartered Semiconductors, our beloved high tech foundry.
Over the past decade, the company had lost over a billion dollars culmulatively, burnt two billon SGD of cash and generated a spectacular ROE of negative 6%. It has never paid a cash dividend in its entire existence and have asked for money countless times.
Considering that cost of capital is around 6% (see previous post), Chartered failed to even come close. In fact, Chartered helped investors LOSE 6% every year. Yet the market cap of Chartered had been around S$2bn for the good part of the past 10 yrs. (its peak was a whopping S$7bn during the IT bubble and trough a miserable S$300mn during the Lehman shock.) Why would such companies exist in a rational, efficient world? Read more...
[/caption]
The market is efficient and smart, but only to the point of the average smartness of all its investors. Hence it allows companies that spectacularly generate low or even negative return on capital to exist for very long periods of time.
The No.1 ranking company that achieve this tremendous feat would probably be Chartered Semiconductors, our beloved high tech foundry.
Over the past decade, the company had lost over a billion dollars culmulatively, burnt two billon SGD of cash and generated a spectacular ROE of negative 6%. It has never paid a cash dividend in its entire existence and have asked for money countless times.
Considering that cost of capital is around 6% (see previous post), Chartered failed to even come close. In fact, Chartered helped investors LOSE 6% every year. Yet the market cap of Chartered had been around S$2bn for the good part of the past 10 yrs. (its peak was a whopping S$7bn during the IT bubble and trough a miserable S$300mn during the Lehman shock.) Why would such companies exist in a rational, efficient world? Read more...
