Capital Alliance Group has two 100% owned subsidiaries:
CIBT - Canadian Institute of Business and Technology Corp SEG - SE Global Equities Company Limited
CIBT is an institute for higher-level career development education in China. CIBT is one of the largest foreign owned career and academic schools in Beijing and through a joint venture with City University of Renton, Washington, CIBT is the largest foreign MBA facilitator in China. Recently CIBT announced that it is developing a series of on-line business education programs in order to benefit students by enabling them to enhance qualifications at the lowest possible cost.
China is one of the largest countries in the world. It has a territory of 9.6 million square kilometres and a population of 1.2 billion. There are 30 provinces, 517 cities and 1,075 universities and institutes in China. The China Education and Research Network (CERNET - edu.cn, funded by the Chinese government, has been establishing a nation-wide education and research network infrastructure to support education in and among universities, institutes and schools in China using the up-to-date telecommunication and computer techniques. This network will be key in allowing CIBT to offer their online education services to a huge audience. With growing revenue the past several years ($1.7 million for the past 9 months), experienced management and positive earnings it would be very easy to get excited about the prospects for CIBT. However CIBT is not the reason I am excited about the future of Capital Alliance Group. What really caught my eye was the company?s other 100% owned subsidiary SE Global Equities Company Limited (SEG).
Last year the company announced the establishment of a new wholly owned subsidiary SE Global Equities Company Limited ("SEG"). SEG was established to develop and market an Internet portal which would allow investors to trade online at discounted rates in over 40 stock exchanges around the world and eventually other stock, futures, options exchanges as well as currencies and bond markets.
I have a vivid memory of a private discussion I had a few months ago with some American friends of mine. These people were attempting to act on a tip I had given them about a Canadian company that was about to do some great things. I felt that the market would soon recognize what they had, and that the share price would move much higher in the near term.
To their disgust, my friends found that it was almost impossible for them to find information on this company through their US brokerage, and they soon realized that while living in the US, buying stock for a Canadian listed company was not an easy task. The only thing they gained from this exercise was frustration, confusion, and ultimately a tremendous missed opportunity.
Although the Canadian / US trading bottleneck seems to have improved lately, I feel it is safe to say that this problem is compounded ten fold when investors in North America are attempting to invest in other parts of the world. Over this past year, I have lost track of how many people have asked me how they could buy shares in Softbank. I feel it is a sad state of affairs when even in a more mature stock market like Japan, the process for buying Japanese listed stocks is not well understood in North America. To illustrate my point, my guess is that there would not be very many people who read this post would know how to buy a stock in a company based in Thailand, or how they would go about buying shares in the latest hot stock on the GEM exchange in Hong Kong - Tom.com. For that matter, you have to ask yourself how easy would it be to buy shares in some of the world renowned software development firms in India. I suspect that many people just give up in frustration and resign themselves to watching the action from afar.
Why this issue is of concern to me is that I am intimately aware that the bulk of the world's population does not live in North America. I also believe that now more than ever, people realize that the Asian Pacific belt is a thriving Mecca of entrepreneur ship and opportunity. However, they also feel that there is such a mystique as to how to conduct business (or make investments) in that part of the world that they have convinced themselves that it is beyond their reach. That said, I am also intimately aware that with their targeted population base of approximately three to four times the size as in North America's, these regions are now offering up some of the more exciting market opportunities in the world today. I want to be part of the group who participates in the growth in wealth that these regions are offering.
I have to tell you that until just recently, I felt that this problem of restricted access and mystic stock markets was one that would be with us for awhile. That is until I became aware of what the folks at Capital Alliance have been working on. In my opinion, they have come up with a tremendous business model that uses the Internet to remove the barriers that have until now stood in our way. Their business model swings the doors wide open for all investors to investment opportunities around the world.
In the most simplest terms, the Capital Alliance Group (through its upcoming spin off StockExchangeGlobal.com (SEG)), will act as a one stop financial portal to over 40 stock exchanges around the world. In a very short period of time, SEG will be the only interface an investor will ever need in order to buy or sell equities or other financial products in the majority of stock exchanges around the globe. The company is implementing their plans in a series of stages. The first stage will see seven stock exchanges come on line. This will be followed by seven more in a very short period of time and moving rapidly to their goal of 40 exchanges. On-line trading is booming. The firms can't keep up with the demand, and the pent up demand in SEG's target market is reaching a fever pitch.
I want to stress that SEG is will be acting as a financial portal and not as a broker. In the purest sense, it will be a one stop site for anyone (anywhere in the world) who wants to place a trade, or find out information on companies listed on foreign stock exchanges. One of the most attractive features of their plan is that their model allows them to facilitate trades at a discounted rate. Unlike the up charges along the way that are common throughout the process of buying equities in through several middle men, this model will eliminate those up charges. I believe that it is important to point out that the up charge practice is common even within the various National and International offices of many of the same brokerage firms. This practice is commonplace in that each of these offices generally operate as a stand alone cost centre. As such, they are not set up to deal with International trades for their clients in a cost efficient manner.
Note: After typing a draft version of this post, I followed my common practice of calling a friend to read it to him to hear what he has to add or critique. When he heard it, he told me to read the 'Money' section in yesterday's National Post. He felt that there was an appropriate and timely quote in that article. Here is an excerpt from an interview with a successful daytrader . . .
nationalpost.com.
"He also has been finding it difficult to invest outside of North America. Mr. Oliveira is originally from Bombay, and has wanted to invest overseas for some time. But he finds the brokerage fees prohibitive. "I follow the Indian stocks regularly. India is very good in the tech and biotech sectors, and there are a lot of good companies."
SEG has also stated that it is their intention to eventually evolve to offer other financial products such as options, bonds, etc.. They will also evolve to act as a source of distribution for new listings (IPO market).
In follow on posts, I will attempt to explain how the actual log on and trading activities will work.
From my review, I am confident that this company's acceptance and growth in the market will be significant. I am also confident that their revenue model is sound, and this company stands to be very profitable in a much shorter time span than will other Internet related growth companies. The real acid test for me is whether I would use this service. I can assure you that I am very eager to get on line in search of the many far 'treasures of the world.' <ggg> This company's promise of low cost, high service, 24 hour access to the world markets, and expanding global services greatly appeals to me.
As an investor in CPT stock, I have looked at this company's plans with a critical eye. I was looking for the Achilles heel so that I could feel better knowing about the potential risks before jumping in. That said, I also believe that the existing on-line brokers can't do what SEG is doing because they need the exchanges to be Internet capable - and many are not. This limitation to the on-line brokers is not a barrier to SEG because they are electronically bringing the orders to pre-selected brokers who will place these orders through their own respective exchanges. Baring any unforeseen and massive strategy shift from some of the major firms now in the market, I believe that this company has a tremendous first to market advantage which will be very hard to overtake. Their business model will enable both B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (business to business) transactions. The support among the existing exchanges seems to be very positive, and with the third largest bank in the world supporting it, you have to believe that this company has a serious chance at pulling off their plans. I now feel that they stand a very real chance of taking the financial markets by storm. I have always loved this quote, and I feel it is appropriate now . . .
"Society is always taken by surprise at some new example of common sense" Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I anticipate that this common sense approach to solving the problem of access to the fractious world's stock markets will pay off handsomely. Any investor, around the world will now have an opportunity to become a truly global player. Yes, I believe that as word of just what these people are doing gets out to more investors, then the share holders in Capital Alliance Group stock will see a significant appreciation share price in the near, medium and long term.
Best Regards
KEITH |
