- Joined
- Jun 3, 2014
- Messages
- 5,344
Good point (about leveraging assets) and we are in agreement (I think) ... always make other's money work for you.Actually - it's not a fact. You are not the only one who has studied business models. And in a great many scenarios, having reported wealth allows the person to leverage that reported wealth without selling that property.
So if you really want to insist on this line of reasoning, I call BS. It is actually more unusual for people at Kroenke's level or even much lower levels to buy and sell as a means to build fortunes. Rather, they leverage what they own as it continues to grow in appraised value toward buying more properties or investments. An asset value is not only realized when it is sold. That would go against virtually every investment rule. In fact, most investors would only sell an asset if it is either trading well above their perceived value or if they see its future value declining.
So in a case like Kroenke, if he has a net worth of several billion based on assets, that allows him to buy other money cheaper, attract other investors when partnering up, look better to leagues or investment groups when wanting to buy into their markets, etc... He certainly doesn't need to sell assets to do that. In fact, selling assets would be looked at as a sign of weakness in many cases.
Now if you want to argue that building the Inglewood Stadium would be a bad investment because of cash flow, there is something to be said there. If the cash flow is not actually demonstrating a decent ROI then that alone will devalue his investment. The problem is that I don't think anyone knows what his research shows as an ROI. But I'm going to guess that he has already modeled that and has looked at scenarios ranging from best to worst.
I will admit that when I look at it, I have a hard time seeing a good ROI. But I have mentioned before that I have been involved in some pretty decent sized projects that I couldn't see the ROI - yet they made money for their owners. My guess is that if there isn't a good ROI on Inglewood then it is a very elaborate leverage ploy. And that is something I have never discounted as a real possibility.
BTW - the comment that Kroenke has a Masters in business shouldn't really be dismissed because you meant to only include those posting on ROD. The point should have been obvious that Kroenke is pretty well educated and it is a pretty safe assumption that he knows what he is doing based on his education and business history.
The downside, though, is that by leveraging, you are committing to debt service. The equation remains the same:
Assets - liabilites = net worth
Let's take my house... let's say it's worth $250k (it isn't) and I have a $150k mortgage on it. That's $100k in net worth. Again, I don't realize $100k until (or unless) I sell my house. Using leverage, I take out a $50k home equity line of credit to make investments. The HELOC interest rate is 5%. Obviously, I have to make more than 5% to effectively leverage. If, for some reason, I cannot maintain that return, I am in a losing situation. It can - and does - happen every day in business. I know you know this... just babbling.
So, what do I have? Net worth of $50k with debt service of $200k. If we only are looking at net worth, maybe $50k looks good. What is not revealed in the Kronke world is the $200 debt service. Pretty important ommission IMHO.
As far as the Kroenke Master's response... I started it so I apologize... wish we didn't have so much sarcasm at times.