Bill Ackman panicked about the coronavirus early on.



The billionaire investor had a nightmare about COVID-19 in late January, which might as well have been the plot of the pandemic thriller&nbsp;Contagion. When he woke up, he started prepping.



He began arranging for his firm’s fifty employees to abandon their midtown Manhattan offices. He put on doomsday hedges. And then he pulled an enormous amount of cash from an ATM. By the time the Dow Jones Industrial Average was plunging seemingly a thousand points a day, Ackman’s $5.6 billion firm was making money amid the chaos.



So when he woke on Wednesday morning, Ackman didn’t have a pleasant message for America. He took to Twitter to recommend <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2020/03/18/hedge-fund-billionaire-bill-ackman-calls-for-30-day-shutdown-of-country-closing-of-borders-to-curb-covid-19-spread/#4d6686425571">a shutdown of the country</a>.



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Mr. President, the only answer is to shut down the country for the next 30 days and close the borders. Tell all Americans that you are putting us on an extended Spring Break at home with family. Keep only essential services open. The government pays wages until we reopen.&mdash; Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillAckman/status/1240244507246919681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Then he called into&nbsp;CNBC&nbsp;around noontime to elaborate. And it was bad.



“Hell is coming,” said Ackman, in a frenzied 28-minute interview. “Shut it down now,” he said of the economy, “There is a tsunami coming.”



Ackman recommended President Trump effectively close the country for 30 days and shut the borders to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Yes, it would mean an economic disaster, so Ackman recommended that Trump call a national ‘Spring Break’ and have the government pay wages, halt foreclosures, and help with other monthly bills like rent to tide people over.



This way Americans will stay at home and the virus will stop spreading.



If not, Ackman warned in an emotional interview that verged on panic, the country will experience a prolonged pandemic, which will put many industries ranging from hotels, to restaurants, to real estate out of business.



“What’s scaring the American people and corporate America now is the gradual roll-out,” said Ackman, of containment and distancing measures. “Capitalism does not work in an 18-month shutdown, capitalism can work in a 30-day shutdown.”



The hedge fund manager, turned amateur health expert, said the contagiousness of the virus may mean millions will die without drastic measures. He choked up when talking about the risks of the disease to his elderly father, and revealed that some of his employees may have the virus.



“The only shared sacrifice that is going on right now is the healthcare community, the nurses, the doctors, the people taking care of patients,” said Ackman. “The president is not saying storm the beaches of Normandy,” he said, hypothetically, of his 30-day shutdown proposal. “He’s saying go home, spend a month with your family.”



When Ackman turned to his portfolio and the rest of Wall Street, his warnings were dire.



“Hilton is the canary in the coal mine,” said Ackman of the hotelier, which is one of his larger holdings. Without quicker action, “it’s going to zero along with every other hotel company,” he predicted. Though, he did say his Pershing Square was buying shares of Hilton as markets plunged on Wednesday morning.



“I have enormous respect for KKR and Blackstone,” Ackman added of the two illustrious private equity firms, before predicting their leveraged deals would be toast if there isn’t a quick solution within the next 18-months. “[E]very one of their companies goes bankrupt,” he said.



After the interview,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;has learned Ackman called Blackstone and said he’s buying the firm’s shares.



His ideas were boundless: He recommended Elon Musk convert Tesla’s car-making factories into ventilator-making factories.



As he spoke, the market plunged, tick-by-tick.



The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down over 1,000 points when he went on air. It hit a circuit breaker as he spouted dark doom and gloom, then closed for 15 minutes. When it reopened, it was down 2,000-plus.



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Ackman just halted the market.&mdash; Nathan Michaud (@InvestorsLive) <a href="https://twitter.com/InvestorsLive/status/1240321527024844804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Some on Twitter took Ackman’s dire warnings as necessary.



His “shut it down now” idea, increasingly, is becoming the pandemic playbook for cities either implementing or considering “shelter-in-place” laws. And, in recent days and weeks, health experts have responded positively to market-tanking warnings by public officials about the virus.



Many commended President Trump for talking about the gravity of the pandemic earlier in March, even though it was the catalyst for a sudden market drop. Before Ackman went on air, Dr. Deborah Birx, the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said many people, particularly young people, are not taking the pandemic seriously enough. Her message to millennials? You can die from this.



However, others saw a panicked billionaire investor talking down the market and inciting fear.



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Please get Ackman off CNBC before people start jumping off bridges. <a href="https://twitter.com/CNBC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNBC</a>&mdash; Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) <a href="https://twitter.com/novogratz/status/1240321462621351936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Ackman then went back on Twitter to clarify his intentions. “These are the bargains of a lifetime if we manage this crisis correctly,” he said.



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Some investors have been confused by remarks. To clarify, I am confident the president will do the right thing in temporarily shutting down the country and closing the borders. If that happens, we can win the war against the virus and the markets and the economy will soar.&mdash; Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillAckman/status/1240351178933895169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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 You can watch Ackman’s CNBC interview in full here. (Pershing Square declined to comment further.)



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Watch the full interview with Bill Ackman on the coronavirus threat to economy — &#39;Shut it down now&#39; <a href="https://t.co/nSDK8lwKec">https://t.co/nSDK8lwKec</a>&mdash; CNBC (@CNBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1240339659709915138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/">Antoine Gara</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/banking-insurance">Banking &amp; Insurance</a>

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The Billionaire Interview That Tanked The Stock Market

Topline:&nbsp;Following his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders over the weekend, billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC in an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/warren-buffet-interview-live-updates.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interview</a>&nbsp;on Monday that the coronavirus is “scary stuff” for businesses and investors, but that the outbreak has “not changed” his long-term optimistic outlook on stocks.



<ul><li>Stocks plunged on Monday, with all three major U.S. benchmark indexes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/02/24/markets-plunge-dow-drops-900-points-as-global-coronavirus-outbreak-worsens/#353cf5f46658">losing more than 3%</a>, as a rising number of coronavirus cases outside of China stoked fears that the outbreak could turn into a global pandemic.</li><li>Speaking with CNBC on Monday morning, Buffett <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-berkshire-buffett/warren-buffett-calls-coronavirus-outbreak-scary-stuff-but-says-he-wont-be-selling-stocks-idUSKCN20I1AB" target="_blank">called</a> the coronavirus “scary stuff,” saying that the outbreak is now “front and center” the main threat to U.S. companies and the economy.</li><li>He further <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/warren-buffett-says-us-economy-is-strong-but-a-little-softer-than-it-was-6-months-ago.html" target="_blank">warned</a> that a “very significant percentage” of Berkshire Hathaway’s businesses—it owns more than 90, from American Express and Coca-Cola to Geico and Dairy Queen—could “very well” be negatively impacted by the coronavirus, though he remains optimistic about their long-term prospects.</li><li>More broadly, Buffett said that the U.S. economy is <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/warren-buffett-says-us-economy-is-strong-but-a-little-softer-than-it-was-6-months-ago.html" target="_blank">still “strong,”</a> though it had become “a little softer” than it was six months ago: “Business is down but it’s down from a very good level,” he described. </li><li>Despite the coronavirus’ impact on markets, Buffett, who is famous for his long-term  investing, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/warren-buffett-doesnt-worry-how-current-events-will-affect-the-market.html" target="_blank">said</a> that investors shouldn’t panic by selling stocks based or get caught up in “today’s headlines.” </li><li>The Oracle of Omaha actually sees a positive in the ongoing market sell-off, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/warren-buffet-interview-live-updates.html" target="_blank">telling</a> CNBC that Berkshire Hathaway would “certainly be more inclined” to buy stocks at the lower prices caused by the coronavirus.</li></ul>



 What to watch for: Buffett also <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/warren-buffett-says-apple-is-probably-the-best-business-i-know-in-the-world.html" target="_blank">spoke</a> to CNBC about some of his favorite investments right now. He called Apple, which is Berkshire Hathaway’s third-largest holding (with a roughly 5.5% stake) behind insurance and railroad companies, “probably the best business I know in the world.” Buffett added that he especially likes bank stocks, which are a big part of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio—with big names like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America among its top holdings. Buffett <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/warren-buffet-interview-live-updates.html" target="_blank">called</a> banks “very attractive compared to most other securities I see.”  



Surprising fact:&nbsp;Buffett also recently spoke about the coronavirus to his “science advisor,” billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates: “I talked to him in the last few days about it, and he’s bullish on the long-term outlook for a universal prevention of it,” he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/warren-buffet-interview-live-updates.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>.



Crucial quote: “We’re buying businesses to own for 20 or 30 years,” Buffett, who Forbes estimates has a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/warren-buffett/#3a87d5e14639">net worth</a> of $87.3 billion, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/warren-buffet-interview-live-updates.html" target="_blank">said</a> on CNBC. “We think the 20- and 30-year outlook is not changed by the coronavirus.”



Key background:&nbsp;Stocks&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/02/24/markets-plunge-dow-drops-900-points-as-global-coronavirus-outbreak-worsens/#353cf5f46658">plummeted sharply</a>&nbsp;on Monday, amid news that the coronavirus outbreak has now infected more than 79,000 people globally and killed over 2,600. The number of cases outside of China surged over the weekend, causing concern among global investors as countries like Italy, South Korea and Iran emerge as new coronavirus hot spots. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 1,000 points, dropping 3.5% for its worst day since February 2018. The S&amp;P 500 similarly fell 3.5%, its worst drop since October 2018. Monday’s sell-off completely erased both indexes’ gains so far in 2020. The Nasdaq Composite index, on the other hand, declined 4%.&nbsp;



Tangent:&nbsp;Buffett was also asked about U.S. politics during his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/buffett-on-bernie-sanders-us-can-do-better-for-those-left-behind-but-cannot-kill-capitalism.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interview</a>. The billionaire investor said he would “certainly” vote for Mike Bloomberg. “I don’t think another billionaire supporting him would be the best thing to announce,” Buffet&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/buffett-on-bernie-sanders-us-can-do-better-for-those-left-behind-but-cannot-kill-capitalism.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>, “but sure, I would have no trouble voting for Mike Bloomberg.” While he said he sympathizes with Democratic front-runner Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) message about income inequality, Buffett doesn’t think socialism is the answer,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/buffett-on-bernie-sanders-us-can-do-better-for-those-left-behind-but-cannot-kill-capitalism.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">saying instead</a>, “I don’t believe in giving up the capitalist system.”



Further reading: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2020/02/22/buffetts-letter-to-berkshire-shareholders-reveals-5-billion-in-stock-buybacks-and-plans-for-his-berkshire-stake/#140c5c2d39d4">Buffett’s Letter To Berkshire Shareholders Reveals $5 Billion In Stock Buybacks And Plans For His Berkshire Stake</a> 



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/">Sergei Klebnikov</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/markets">Markets</a>.

Conference On Issues Affecting U.S. Capital Markets Competitiveness

Here’s What Warren Buffett Says About The Coronavirus And His Outlook On Stocks

Nancy Zevenbergen operates her market-beating $2.4 billion-in-assets investment firm from a canned-sardine-tight corner office overlooking Seattle&#8217;s Space Needle and the Olympic mountains. Inside this 400-square-foot &#8220;war room&#8221; is a pentagonal desk where she and the four other members of her stock-picking team use 15 computer screens displaying stock market and financial data. On the walls hang dry-erase boards with Zevenbergen Capital Investments&#8217; positions and corkboards holding newspaper and magazine clippings relating to long-held winners, such as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/amazon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amazon.com</a>, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/tesla/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tesla</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/netflix/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Netflix</a>. There&#8217;s even an unframed &#8220;Frank Underwood for President&#8221; poster &#8211; a nod to Netflix&#8217;s House of Cards hit.
The team listens via speaker to the earnings calls of the disruptive, entrepreneur-run businesses Zevenbergen favors. Together, she figures, they have a better chance of catching nuances beyond the numbers. Is a CEO excited about a new revenue stream? Losing faith in his strategy? Such cues are crucial because Zevenbergen is a &#8220;high conviction&#8221; investor who discounts value measures like price-to-earnings ratios in her hunt for &#8220;dreamers with way bigger brain capacity than I have&#8221; and the skill to execute. &#8220;My job,&#8221; she says, &#8220;is maybe without full information to make an investment alongside these folks and then track how they are doing.&#8221;
It&#8217;s a job that Zevenbergen, 58, has excelled at since setting up her own investment shop at the age of 28. To pay for college, she worked part-time as a teller at Seattle&#8217;s Rainier Bancorp. After graduation, she was hired by the bank&#8217;s trust department and began managing money. In 1986 she was assigned to vet the initial public offering of local phenom<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/microsoft/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Microsoft</a>. When the IPO shares popped, the trust department quickly sold its allotment to lock in clients&#8217; gains &#8211; a tad shortsighted considering Microsoft&#8217;s 43,000% return since 1987.
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The experience was formative; Zevenbergen saw the huge opportunities created by PCs and the wisdom of holding growth stocks for the long haul. She left to start her own firm with one client and $500,000 in assets and worked from her living room while her husband, mother and a nanny watched her infant and toddler.
By 1992, Zevenbergen had an office, 51 clients and $212 million under management. She needed help and recruited Brooke de Boutray, whom she&#8217;d befriended a decade before when both were studying for their CFA designations. Now 62, De Boutray had also been in the right place at the right time. After the 1984 breakup of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/att/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AT&amp;T</a>, she was assigned by a regional bank to cover sleepy telecoms &#8211; just before cellular service and local entrepreneur <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/craig-mccaw/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Craig McCaw</a> made the beat exciting. In 1994, Zevenbergen added Leslie Tubbs, now 58, a banker-turned-analyst who specializes in financial and biotechnology stocks. The three women still form the core of the stock-picking operation, with two younger male analysts added in 2011.
Despite dramatic losses during the dot-com bust and the financial crisis, Zevenbergen&#8217;s aggressive strategy has produced impressive long-term results. Her flagship growth equity fund has returned 11.5% annually, net of fees, since 1987, beating the Russell 3000 Growth Index&#8217;s 9.8% return. A smaller, even more growth-focused ZTech fund has returned 12.9% annually net of fees since 1994, trouncing the Russell 3000 Growth&#8217;s 8.8% return during that period.
In August 2015, Zevenbergen launched two mutual funds. The growth-heavy Zevenbergen Genea Fund &#8211; with an expense ratio of 1.4% and minimum investment of $2,500 &#8211; ranks in the top 1% of its category with a one-year return of 50%. The slightly less aggressive Zevenbergen Growth Fund is up 30% over the past year, ranking in the top decile of its category. In addition to proven winners like Amazon, the Genea Fund holds concentrated bets in Shopify and South American e-commerce giant <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/mercadolibre/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MercadoLibre</a> and online education provider 2U.
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The mutual funds have attracted just $10 million and are not for the faint of heart &#8211; or the impatient. &#8220;If you just want to maintain wealth, go for diversification and go passive,&#8221; Zevenbergen says. &#8220;If you want to create wealth, own growth companies and concentrated portfolios. But recognize that they cannot perform every day or every week or every month or even every quarter.&#8221; She calls investing with a less than five-year time frame &#8220;truly speculative.&#8221;
Zevenbergen herself shows extraordinary patience &#8211; if she believes in an entrepreneur. She acquired the firm&#8217;s $167 million Netflix stake at an average split-adjusted cost of $6, mostly prior to 2010. The stock rose to $43, then plunged to $9 in 2011 after cofounder <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/reed-hastings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reed Hastings</a> attempted to spin off Netflix&#8217;s cash-cow DVD-rental business to hasten its streaming growth. Hastings reversed course, and Zevenbergen added to her holdings; Netflix now trades at $185.
Note that Zevenbergen bets on entrepreneurs and not just ideas. She shuns companies run by &#8220;rent-a-CEOs&#8221; in favor of founders who are ready to make &#8220;outrageous investment&#8221; decisions that may take years to pay off. And she can be forgiving. She bought Amazon in 1997 when it was newly public but sold when it tanked in 2000. She bought again in 2007 and today has a $157 million position in Amazon with a $60-a-share average basis, meaning her bet on <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jeff Bezos</a> has risen sixteenfold.
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High conviction? She bought Facebook&#8217;s initial public offering at $38 and added to the stake after the social-networking company fell by half after its debut. Her $138 million position is up sevenfold. Then there&#8217;s Tesla, which trades at 16 times what Zevenbergen paid. Skeptics abound: $10 billion in short money is betting against it. Zevenbergen is unfazed. She says she worries more about finding the next great entrepreneur.
That search takes Zevenbergen well beyond tech and beyond her Seattle base (though she was early into local winners <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/starbucks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Starbucks</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/costco-wholesale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Costco Wholesale</a>). In 2013, while screening for transportation companies that might benefit from Amazon&#8217;s growth, her team came upon Greenwich, Connecticut-based <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/xpo-logistics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">XPO Logistics</a>, which was growing rapidly through acquisitions. CEO Bradley Jacobs had already done successful roll-ups in construction equipment and waste management. She started buying and added to her position after XPO&#8217;s September 2015 acquisition of trucker Con-way hammered its stock, bringing her average cost down to $32 a share. It now trades at $63.
That&#8217;s not to say Zevenbergen never bets wrong or loses patience. She has recently liquidated positions in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/pandora-media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pandora Media</a>, LendingClub and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/under-armour/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Under Armour</a> at a loss and has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/snap/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Snap</a> and Blue Apron on watch.
Jim Martin, the former chief investment officer for the $1.1 billion-in-assets Murdock Trust, put $5 million with Zevenbergen in 1994 and stuck with her through the bad years. The trust now has $94 million under her management. &#8220;For investors who can stand that volatility, we&#8217;ve been rewarded,&#8221; Martin says, adding that with Zevenbergen&#8217;s high conviction you get &#8220;as much manager skill as possible to the bottom line.&#8221; &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Antoine Gara</a>, FORBES STAFF

Meet The Best Investor You’ve Never Heard Of: How She Stuck With Amazon, Netflix And Tesla For Years

Freddie Achom does not look like the stereotypical investor or entrepreneur. Sporting dreadlocks that tumble to his shoulders, he is dapper, yet relaxed, in a blazer over a shirt and jeans. Achom is articulate and humorous as he recounts his journey to the pinnacle of global enterprise. He might not have got there if he wasn’t encouraged to take a chance while moving from studying medicine to business while at university.
“I started working for a stationery company and it was then that a more senior member of staff said to me, ‘you are really good at business development. How long have you been doing it?’ And I said, ‘this is my first job. I’m just here for the summer and when university starts again, I’m off.’ Then he said to me ‘you should consider it. Your bosses are not telling you that you are doing something really special.’”
“There was a commission sheet where you recorded what you brought into the company and for me it was never enough so I had to flip it over and fill it out all the way to the bottom of the next page. I did that week in, week out. He said ‘I’ve been here five years and I’ve never seen anyone do that, so you should consider it.’ He actually encouraged me which is strange because here’s a man getting all the accolades of training me and he’s telling me, ‘you need to get out of here.’”
Aware of his talent, Achom moved to work for a surveying firm. While there, he was headhunted to join a professional business development firm, an experience which he credits for developing his self-confidence.
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“The director was pretty quirky but he had a lot of faith in me. I think I got most of my conviction and belief there because he was self-made; an interesting guy from up north (of England)… He said I could do whatever I wanted. He said ‘you should set yourself a target where you can touch things.’ And he said to me ‘what watch are you wearing?’ I said ‘just some regular watch.’ So he said ‘buy yourself a Rolex watch. How long do you think it’s going to take you?’ I said ‘I don’t know.’ He said ‘just set yourself that target and do it.’”
Six weeks later, Achom saw the director sitting in his office and showed him his watch.
“He went ‘you’ve bought the watch already!’ I said ‘yes, I bought it a couple of weeks after I saw you.’ I set my target and I checked how much it was and I think I bought it about a fortnight after he told me. He was genuinely impressed.”
The next phase of the journey saw Achom establish his first company in partnership with a group of associates. They built a consultancy and strategic funding agency and sold it after three years. Cash in hand, Achom went on to explore other ventures that led to the establishment of his private fund and flagship company, Rosemont Group Capital Partners. Achom serves as the chairman of the group which holds a diverse portfolio of companies including Communication Power Engineering Company (CPEC), a renewable energy service company and one of the oldest listed companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Other companies under the group include BWC Management, a wine brokerage company and Hershey Pascual Fashion, a high-street women’s fashion brand. Achom’s interests also reach into the restaurant and nightclub industry where he holds stakes in a number of leading spots, including Jalouse in Mayfair and the famous Scotch of St. James in Westminster.
Recently, Achom has diversified his interests by switching his focus to the technology industry. Never one to play small, he announced plans to invest in 20 start-ups by 2017, an excursion that will see him invest around $9.2 million. Considering the skyrocketing valuations in the industry, he is aware of the pitfalls that lurk beneath opportunities.
“The technology space is almost like back in the Wild West where everyone has got their tools out searching for gold. And we all know that though everyone went out, only few came back with lorries of it. Everybody wants to be the next Google and Facebook, but that is not going to happen. But, if you have the right kind of mechanisms in place, if you are looking at the market with your entrepreneurial brain fully on it, I think you’ll do ok,” he says.
“What I find is that the early technology entrepreneur success stories are stumbled upon. Those guys are always guilty of labeling themselves as entrepreneurs and they then embark on this continuous journey to replicate their success, disregarding the fact that the first one was an accident. It just doesn’t work. The people that are really replicating success within the tech space are those that are genuine entrepreneurs and have criteria that they follow and a philosophy that really works for them.”
Achom is also keen to have an impact in Africa where he believes there is significant opportunity.
“We specialize in is renewable energy, so we are looking at Ghana, Nigeria, because West Africa will be our focus. Secondly, technology. We look at what we are learning here in the tech space and at some point it will be our ambition to create an incubator where we nurture ideas at the early stage. The telecommunications infrastructure has laid the foundation. The fundamentals and the user base are there, so this will be hugely profitable.”
Achom was born in Nigeria in the 1970s and moved to Britain in 1982. His parents ran an insurance firm together and sent all four siblings to boarding school. Achom credits the love and support shown by his parents with imbibing a sense of responsibility. They often flew to visit the children at short notice. With two children of his own now, Achom is determined to raise kids with these strong values.
His sense of responsibility extends to society. Achom recently launched the Rosemont Group Foundation. His aim is to encourage young people to believe in their dreams and focus on their passion despite potential distractions.
“About six years ago, I was driving a Lamborghini and I was at the petrol station filling it up. These kids came past on their bicycles and they were like ‘wow!’ I thought to myself, ‘ok, kids love cars,’ but I didn’t think there was anything special about the guy driving the car until they asked me what I did. I said ‘I’m an investor.’ They went ‘wow! How did you get into that?’ And I said to them ‘study hard, stay in school.’”
“They asked me again, ‘you are not a footballer?’, and I said ‘no’. And I thought to myself, ‘is that the only way they think you can drive a car like that?’ That’s when it hit me and I started to think I could do something to change that perception.”
“I wanted people to learn from my experience doing business in the UK, where the cards are stacked against you, where the pitfalls are, how you maintain your focus, your dignity, your true God-given character, because I come from Africa and we don’t succumb easily.”
“I’ve experienced prejudices doing business, where people had preconceived ideas of me but spent a few minutes with me and those perceptions changed. The foundation was about letting people know that people exist that you can look up to and call up if you need to and draw from and learn from their experiences, and I hope I can contribute a little towards that.”

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