janice, this should answer most of ur questions.
Started By: mact
Date: Nov 21 1999 2:28PM
Jafco is a Japanese co. that was est. in 1973 by Nomura Securities Co. They are a pioneer in the venture capital industry in Japan. They invest in promising technologies and seek sectors where substantial barriers to entry or a market leading position can be created. It trades under the ticker symbol #8595. As of 11/21/99, the stock price is 16,500Y or $155 per share(52 wk. range 2,700-19,400Y). Six months ago, it traded at approx. $40, hence people are taking notice of this company and its potential. As of 3/99, they have invested almost 2B dollars and 2/3 of their investments are in Japanese co's, although this yr, the majority of their investments have been in the US. What interests me is their stakes in over 100 US co's.(although difficult to assess what % stake they are taking in these co's after reviewing S1 filings of recent ipo's of brcd and vixl). Some select examples include:
brocade comm, vixel corp, obsidian(acquired by applied materials), cielo comm, dynachip corp, monterey networks(acquired by cisco), sentient networks(acquired by cisco), coherent networks, airgate holdings, aptis comm(acquired by nortel), argon networks, silknet software, net perceptions, digital island, adaptive media, avanex corp, adicom wireless, cerulean tech, composite comm, advanced fibre comm, ciena, neomagic, comm quest, lightspeed.
As you can see, the list is very impressive. They currently have a mkt. cap of $7.5B as compared to Softbank/9984 which has a mkt. cap. of $64B!. Unlike Softbank, which is concentrating on e-retail/finance and is just taking a interest in the B2B sector, Jafco is investing in infrastructure, B2B software and telecommunication in Japan, as well as in the US,Asia and Europe.
The isssues i see are:
1. what % stake are they taking in US co's? .1%?...30%?
2. clearly, their US interests through their subsidiary JAFCO America Ventures are the most exciting and interesting. They also invest in non-tech. co's in Japan which i consider to be a negative.
3. is it possible to invest only in JAFCO's US venture?
4. their US investments imo are more impressive than Softbanks. B2C is currently fading and infrastructure,B2B and telecommunications is exploding in the US ans soon the rest of the world, a big positive imo.
5. does JAFCO cultivate the concept of "keiretsu" to the same degree that Softbanks does? Are their stakes large enough to have influence?
6. the stock mvt. of this company is very similar to Softbanks from 6 months ago, can they maintain this momentum?.
Does anyone have insight or opinions regarding this company?. By the way, i am a shareholder of Softbank and that will not change for a long time. Will consider buying Jafco on next dip.
mact |
