In the six months before joining e2-Capital, Fong, 28, set up and ran his own $25 million technology fund – Pacific Legend – in Hong Kong. Fong says the fund, though short-lived, returned 38% to its investors by betting on technology stocks such as telecommunications company China Mobile and computer company Legend Holdings.
Before that Fong was an associate director at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, where he traded Asian equities, especially North Asian equities, for three years. He joined Morgan from Goldman Sachs, where he worked for 18 months as a sales and equity trader, he says.
"When the opportunity to join e2-Capital came along I joined because I've known [founder] S.J. Wong for some time and it gave me the opportunity to pursue technology research at a semi-startup."
Fong concedes that he's never actually been an investment analyst or written research reports, but he believes he has worked closely with enough people who have written them to have picked up the knack. In any case, he doesn't plan to write 150-page reports on huge companies or macroeconomics.
"What we are going to be focusing on is research coming in from a specific angle," he says, without elaborating on what such an angle might be. "The aim of a research analyst is to have market moving recommendations. In the US, if an analyst puts out a call he or she can move markets. In Asia that's less likely to be so."
Fong says he believes his experience in the secondary markets will help him analyse companies from a unique angle and make market-moving recommendations. He sees his target audience as institutional investors. Among the companies he plans to cover are China Mobile, Legend Holding, PCCW, Softbank, Sunevision, Hongkong.com and Timeless Software. He says he will 'assist' in bringing new business into the company but that won't be his main focus.
He declined to reveal his salary. He says it consists of a base, a bonus and stock options.
"Let's just say I consider myself one of the owners of the company," he says.
