Classic Ferraris, Bentleys soar in value as gold price sinks

September 9, 2013 Leave a comment

Updated: Saturday September 7, 2013 MYT 2:11:56 PM

Classic Ferraris, Bentleys soar in value as gold price sinks

LONDON: Classic cars such as Ferraris, Bugattis and Bentleys soared by 28 percent in value in the year to June, outstripping gold, art and luxury London property thanks to rising demand from wealthy Asians. Property consultancy Knight Frank, which publishes an index tracking the performance of luxury goods, said the world’s wealthy were putting more money into tangible items that they could enjoy as the world economy looks to be recovering.In July, a rare 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 in which five-time Formula 1 World Champion driver Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina won two grands prix, was sold at auction for 19.6 million pounds ($30.6 million), making it the most expensive car ever sold at auction.

“It’s an asset class that’s very rare and it’s very aspirational,” said Andrew Shirley, editor of the report. “A lot of Asian high net worth individuals have acquired classic cars…They keep them in their garage in the UK or Europe and they come over and drive them in rallies.”

This is in stark contrast to gold, seen as a safe haven investment in difficult periods, whose value has slumped by 23 percent over the same period following a 12-year bull run.

“The thing about gold is that it’s tangible in the sense it’s a physical thing but there’s no great enjoyment to be had from gold…Whereas a classic car, it’s still a safe haven play but it’s something you’re going to enjoy,” Shirley said.

After classic cars, the next biggest gainers in the index were coins and stamps, up 9 and 7 percent respectively. Art, which had surged in value in the run-up to the credit crunch, fell 6 percent over the period as buyers become more cautious and selective, he said. – Reuters

Filed under Macro Trends

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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