TWO successful Filipino entrepreneurs in Australia and New Zealand recently entered into a $100-M engagement to jointly expand their respective businesses.
New Zealand-based Starfleet Innotech, Inc., chaired by Jeths de Jesus Lacson, and SAM Digital Technologies, Inc. (SDT) chairman Rommel Santos, are offering a subscription-based program.
Lacson said SFIO is a publicly-listed company on the OTC markets in the United States. It is an asset management firm with a conglomerate of five strategic business divisions such as food manufacturing, franchising, coffee business, property development and technology/software development.
The company has a strong presence in New Zealand and Australia. It is currently expanding in the U.S. and Asia. The strong interest is primarily from Filipino communities in the U.S and Canada, but there are subscriptions from other nationalities as well, according to the SFIO Chairman. SFIO is one of the trusted Top 50 in the stock market in New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Santos said the SFIO-SAM partnership would allow Smart Asset Managers (SAM) subscribers, particularly those supporting SFIO projects, to reap benefits as SDT “intends to leverage its shares of stocks in its subscription efforts.”
“By offering a subscription-based program to support the multi-economic ecosystem of SAM, members and subscribers can maximize their opportunities from the various diverse industries within the program,” Santos explained.
The duo shared that these opportunities are offered to all socio-economic sectors, not only for OFWs but even for the rich and the poor. The subscription opens opportunities for them.
The benefits offered by SFIO through SAM include a one percent earning monthly from the subscribed value and the transfer of shares of 100% value based on the current share price. Cancellation of subscription also offers benefits with the subscribers given the option to cancel and get their money back less the two percent transaction fee.
Subscribers can also sell their shares of stocks when the market value has appreciated. Both entrepreneurs have agreed to make the shares of stocks accessible to everyone, regardless of the socio-economic status of the subscribers.
SAM, Santos said, is into digital and conventional business development with its primary business model of selling membership programs as a form of subscription to distribute rewards or incentives. “Under no circumstances that SAM is offering any form of investment or selling securities or offer management programs,” he added.
SFIO is targeting to raise $30 million in the U.S. SFIO, according to Lacson. Some of these have already been subscribed while still in its initial public offering (IPO) stage, he added.
For his part, Santos will also initiate a road tour in the U.S. this October “to strategically promote the SAM-SFIO multi-stream economic opportunity. The SDT is fast-tracking advocacy in introducing financial literacy and entrepreneurial leadership programs by sponsoring master classes.”
The Lacson-Santos tandem intends to revisit their plans and strategies and are considering increasing their target fund raising.
“Now is the time to invest. The market landscape has dramatically changed. It has been shaken because of the pandemic and a lot of businesses have to adapt and re-strategize to be able to suit in the so-called new normal,” Lacson concluded.
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