Month: November 2015

It is easier for an elephant to pass through the eye of the needle than for a novice investor to successfully purchase land in Lagos state, perfect their title to the land and successfully develop the land (especially where the land in question is either family land or worse, community land).

Purchasing land and perfecting title to that land in Lagos state can be a real bother; it almost appears that the entire system relating to the purchase and perfection of land is set up to frustrate anyone who intends to purchase land within Lagos state!

Its a mine field out there! first you identify a piece of piece of real estate which falls within your budget, then you have to confirm that (a) the land in question is free from government acquisition (b) that the documents being shown to you in respect of that land are genuine (c) that the person selling the land to you is the true owner of the land or has the authority of the owner to transact with you (d) that the coordinates in the survey plan which has been provided to you are actually the coordinates of the land which you desire to purchase in the first place (e) that the surveyor you are dealing with is not a total quack who will take your hard earned money and leave you with some worthless pieces of paper… it all sounds really daunting, doesn’t it? hold on

After confirming that the land you wish to buy is free from encumbrance and that you are dealing with the proper parties, you have to tangle with the elements commonly known as ‘Omo-Oniles’. They come up with numerous requirements all designed to part you from as much money as possible. Their charges include ‘Owo signatory’,’ Owo Olori-ebi’, ‘Owo youth’, ‘Owo foundation etc. Once you are done with these criminals and you have your title documents duly executed and delivered, then you meet the mightiest obstacle, the Lagos state Lands registry, State Seretariat Alausa!

The Lands registry is a miasma of bureaucracy, God help you if any of your documents are improperly executed, you could spend the next year just trying to perfect your title. If you are lucky enough to get the consent of the Governor to your transaction in 3 months, then your work was done in record time! Lagos state has claimed that the process may be completed in one month, however all those in the know understand that the claims are pure fiction. Add to that the delays you will face from the state inland revenue service, the surveyor general’s office and other parastatals and you will get an idea of the merry go round you’re about to mount.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This article seeks to answer the question whether significant differences exist in the reaction of large and small investors to market information as expounded by analysts, who may or may not be affiliated to the company whose stock is being reviewed. In doing this, we consider separately the trading behavior of large and small investors. Large traders are likely to be institutional investors, such as pension funds; small traders are more likely to be individual investors or small uninformed investment groups.

 

Stock analysis is a staple of the financial pages of newspapers, magazines and websites. Analysts often advice investors to buy, sell or hold on to securities issued by the company being reviewed and several retail investors have been known to rely on the information dispensed by these stock analysts in making their investment decisions. Sell-side analysts face a well-known conflict of interest when providing investment advice. On the one hand, reliable recommendations attract customers and enhance the analyst’s reputation. On the other hand, buy recommendations are more likely to generate trading business than sell recommendations, given short-selling constraints. Moreover, management tends to complain about low ratings and to “freeze out” the issuing analysts, and buy-side clients push for positive recommendations on stocks that they hold.

Future underwriters might issue higher recommendations to gain business, to increase future offer prices. For bond underwriters, positive coverage could be part of an implicit agreement with the issuer, as it is for equity issues. Directly or indirectly, analyst compensation depends on the “support” in generating corporate finance profits

 

A large body of research reveals that analysts often distort information for the benefit of their investment banking business. Several papers document that the recommendations of affiliated analysts are more favorable than those of unaffiliated analysts (We classify analysts as “affiliated” if they belong to a bank that has an underwriting relationship with the firms they are reporting on.). We also consider separately independent brokerage firms, which do not underwrite any securities and whose recommendations are more likely to be objective.

 

Research reveals that small investors take recommendations literally. Small investors also fail to account for the additional distortion due to underwriter affiliation. Potential explanations are higher costs of information and naiveté about distortions in analyst recommendations. These findings suggest that small investors are naive about the distortions and trust analysts too much. This implies the need to evolve independent and low cost means of gathering market information and analysis thereon. Such a development will mitigate the effect of analyst bias on investor bias.

 

Milton and Cross offers investment advisory and due diligence services to individual and corporate organizations engaging in share purchases as well as related transactions, thereby bridging information asymmetries and knowledge gaps in the market. We may be contacted directly on +2348036258312, or by email on : miltoncrosslexng@gmail.com.

culled from www.inc.com

The other day, my co-founder and I were talking about a successful entrepreneur who totally hated our business. Everything from the business model, traction, and team gave him a feeling of absolute dread. His advice to us was to quit our company and find something else to do.

So as we’re discussing this incident, I started to feel doubt building within me. I reminded myself of all the weaknesses we had as a business. Uncertainty started filling my brain, and it became easy to see the confidence drain from my body. But just as I started going down the spiral of panic, my co-founder asked me something that completely shifted my mindset.

“If everything Mr. Doubter said was true, what would be the worst case scenario?”

I took a minute to think through the question.

“Well first off we’d run out of all our funding.”

But if that happened, we could still keep the company going. We could take part time jobs to keep our servers going, live off our friend’s couches, and get the value pack of ramen from Costco. Not the ideal situation, but something we’d both easily be willing to do to keep the company going.

“We’d have to lay off our entire team.”

When we add members on our team, we begin to feel that they are more essential than they really are. Team members make us feel successful, they start giving us more free time, and it appears that more gets done. Unfortunately, many times this is not the case. Once you get past a couple of people, overall productivity sharply decreases.

So, if everyone leaves your team, the real question to ask is if the founders would still stay. Would they keep the business going? If the founders are willing to stick through it, they’ll find ways to compensate for the skills they don’t have.

“Our investors, customers, friends, and family would be disappointed in us.”

No one can call you loser if you never quit. As entrepreneurs, it’s common to have our friends and loved ones doubt us. But until you throw in the towel, you make them bite their tongue when they think about saying “I told you so.”

So, we came to the conclusion that no matter how bad things got we’d still keep pushing our company. And suddenly, all my worries started to disappear. I’m not scared of uncertainty, because I know for certain what I’ll do to make my company successful.

When you ever face doubt, ask yourself how far you’ll go. What are you willing to sacrifice to keep your dream alive? When will you throw in the towel?

If the answer is never, you’ve got nothing to worry about.