Where One Billionaire Has Allocated His Assets

I
had lunch with T.S. at the end of 2007, who made his fortune founding and building technology companies. T.S. is one of the smartest and most dynamic
entrepreneurs I’ve ever met who now approaches philanthropy with as
much drive as he did his business. One hallmark of T.S.’s success is his ability to surround himself with the smartest people, polling them for information, and making accurate choices about what to do in a particular situation.

T.S. has a family office and also, he actively travels the world and polls the smartest investors about asset allocation so I asked him how
he was allocating his capital. His answer was simple, and concise:

1. Sold all commercial US real estate last year.

2. Moving US Equities down from 40% to 10%. Thinks the Bush
administration has created policies over the last 7 years that will
dramatically impair our ability to compete globally for many years and
that the housing / subprime problem will take years to solve.

3. Heavy into cash because of #2 — believes there will be huge opportunities in real estate in coming years.

4. He is moving 40% of his capital into Asia — primarily China.
Recently spent 10 days in China where he visited Hong Kong, Shanghai,
and Beijing. Said that there is no way to believe what is happening
there until you visit China. It is an experience that has changed his
life. He is investing in private equity funds based in China, staying
away from stocks in the Shanghai exchange. He is also buying stocks in
Australia that sell products to help China build their infrastructure.
“What the US did between 1870 and 2005, China is doing in 20 years.”

I thought these were interesting comments from an active and astute entrepreneur who is approaching the investment of his capital with the seriousness of running any business.