Me & My Money Series (Sunday Times)

[KopiKat]

Exactly. A guarantee offered by a company without adequate financial strength to back up the contingent liabilities it has taken up is worthless. It is easy to make guarantees because companies do not need to put money upfront. It is like selling insurance policies. The financial risks to the entrepreneurs are limited. They can set up a limited-liability company, pump in a tiny amount as equity and this tiny amount is the most they will lose in the worst-case scenario. While the financial risks are low, the reputational risks are real. I can even see the pictures and background of the people behind this company. http://thegoldguarantee.com.sg/biography.html
If things don't work out, it will be a big shame.

From that biography page, only 4 key staff and except for the CEO and Sales Director, I don't see any useful background info eg. Experience, Companies,... The names of companies started by the staff were not mentioned, I wonder why. Even for the Sales Director, I did a quick search of his previous company and am not impressed (selling photocopy papers and stationery). Lastly, the most important job, Who is managing the $80Mil (likely growing by the minute)? It appears to be the CEO who's managing all the "investments", Hedging,...etc. The rest are doing Sales (their Facebook page shows a total of 9 staff but same here, all in Sales, except for CEO and 1 Account/Admin Mgr).

When buying financial products, a person should at least understand how the other side makes its money. I went to the website http://thegoldguarantee.com.sg but not sure if it is my fault, I am not able to find enough information about the sort of deal the company is offering to its customers. Can someone point me to the link? Where is the information that shows he is selling gold bars at $87?

Close to the bottom right hand corner, next to the Facebook box,

Latest Gold Price
16 Jan 2012 - S$87/88 per gram
about 5 hours ago

Golden fleece (article obtained here)

Two companies that offered gold investment schemes are currently under investigation by the authorities.

By Genevieve Cua

Great article, tks! Anyone thinking of putting their money into this Gold Guarantee thingy better read this article first!

For me, it was a good learning experience. Haha.. was even reading up on Gold Hedging to see if what they are doing can be actually workable here

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