Asia’s sixth richest person, Calvin Choi, is controlling the world’s hottest stock right now, AMTD Digital. Forbes estimates his holdings through ANMD make him worth the billions, but its struggling stock prices don’t seem like they’ll hold up. He also holds shares in ANMD’s parent company and those are valued much less heavily.
The market value of Choi’s shares in the company is unknown, but the company’s price-to-sales ratio is 8,077 when compared to its competitor Robinhood Market’s ratio of 2.73.
Comparisons are being drawn to meme stocks, which gain a cult-like following of investors who collectively influence the price of shares. However, it is currently unclear if that is the case here: “It’s a combination a few things—a small float, some likely short interest and now the meme stock angle.” Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer at KraneShares explains why this may be happening.
Compared to other companies, AMTD Digital has a small staff and this is because they have other ways of generating money. This company is growing, but their performance doesn’t match their market cap.
A majority of the voting power lies within AMTD Digital’s mother company. The majority stake holder, who is also AMTD Digital’s parent company, holds 51.3% of the Class B shares and has a 20.4% stake in Infinity Power Investments.
Shares of the company AMTD IDEA were up a staggering 3x as they held a $2 billion market cap as of Wednesday. With an indirect stake in the company worth $36.8 billion, Choi was 6th Richest Asian in Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires Rankings, surpassing Hong Kong’s wealthiest man Li Ka-shing and Tencent’s Ma Huateng. Shares for AMTD Digital tumbled 34.5% on Wednesday.
AMTD Group, which owns more businesses other than AMTD IDEA and AMTD Digital, tells Choi that they see no problem with such calculations. Choi declined to comment on the article through their PR spokesperson.
AMTD was co-founded in 2003 with the Australian Commonwealth Bank and CK Hutchison. The name stands for “add, minus, times, divide.” The company was later controlled by an arm of Morgan Stanley until 2015.
CK Group said they sold most of their shares in AMTD Group nearly a decade ago, and that they are currently negotiating to sell the remaining shares. They hold no representatives on the board, and are not involved with AMTD Group operations.
Choi is AMTD Group’s chairman and CEO. When he had a bachelor’s degree from University of Waterloo in Canada, he told China News Service that he wanted to build “an investment bank of Chinese people” and help Chinese enterprises expand globally. So now, the group has expanded its business to include investment banking, asset management, insurance brokerage and lending.
AMTD IDEA underwrote IPOs and has prominent clients, such as Xiaomi and Meituan. However, the company has not been inspected by the U.S. audit watchdog for 3 years due to failure.
AMTD IDEA attracted major investors and is ready to go public. Other major investors include members of Hong Kong’s billionaire Lo family, which owns Century City International Holdings and Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia.
AMTD Digital was launched in 2019 and the company provides services like marketing that are specifically for Asia. Among other things, their business SpiderNet offers a membership fee scheme that includes investors, business executives, and academic professionals.
AMTD Digital has invested in startups, partnered with the World Economic Forum and Singapore FinTech Festival, and participates in the banking industry.
Korean business entrepreneur Choi has been accused of financial fraud in China and Hong Kong. The accusation was made by a company called China Minsheng Investment Group, which is based in 2020. He had responded to the accusation in a way that he reserves the right to take legal action.
AMTD Group said it plans to continue expanding its presence in the digital realm. The company is looking to acquire a French fashion magazine which will contribute to the development of the online reality known as the metaverse.
When Choi was accused by China Minsheng Investment Group, he responded with his statement. He also wrote about the challenges he faced in general, and how he faced accusations with dignity.
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