Datuk Seri Cheah Cheng Hye is perhaps one of the most successful investors you have not heard of -- but he is a towering figure in Hong Kong's investment community and has been honoured in his country of birth, Malaysia. 
Penang-born Cheah Cheng Hye: Chairman and co-chief investment officer of Hong Kong-listed Value Partners Group. Photo: CompanyHe has been called the "Warren Buffett of the East", sitting atop Value Partners which had assets under management as at 30 June 2018 of US$17.2 billion.
His flagship fund has gained 2,650% since inception in 1993, compared to the Hang Seng Index gain of 461%, he reports in a March 2017 talk (video below) organised by The Star newspaper in Malaysia.
The Star, by the way, is where he started work -- as a journalist.
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"My worst investment was in Oasis Hong Kong Airlines which was started by a preacher. He and his wife are Hong Kong people who claimed to be very wealthy people of Massachusetts - they're Chinese and teach in a Sunday school in Hong Kong. They came to see me a few years ago and they were going to started an airline that imitated Air Asia and since I knew the Air Asia story quite well I was very interested. Our fund put in approximately US$30 million into the airline and it went bust in six months." |
After several years of working, he sold his motorcycle to buy an air ticket to Hong Kong for another journalist job before starting his fund.
In the talk, he shares stories of his struggling youth, and how he went on to become a successful investor and entrepreneur.
So much money was he making at one point, he was paying the highest income tax in HK ahead of Li Ka Shing, he says.
Among the many interesting questions asked by the audience, there was one about his biggest loss and his biggest success.
See the side stories.
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"My best investments include ..... |
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