BIO: Martyn Terpilowski has spent over 20 years in Asia, where he lived for the majority in Tokyo and Hong Kong and was working in finance.

STORY: Martyn wanted to buy a property in London, but since he was living in Singapore, he decided to get a loan from a Singaporean bank. The mistake he made was taking the loan in Swiss francs. He ended up losing over 1.5 million pounds to the bank.

LEARNING: Don’t be greedy when investing. Always do your due diligence.

 

“Don’t mix property investments with currency investments.”Martyn Terpilowski

 

Guest profile

Martyn Terpilowski has spent over 20 years in Asia, where he lived for the majority in Tokyo and Hong Kong and was working in finance. In 2018 he moved to Indonesia and was the Angel Investor and Founder of technology company Bhumi Varta Technology (BVT). The company now has over 150 staff and is growing rapidly. They provide location analytics and big data platform to help large international and local companies make better data-driven decisions. BVT will be one of the leading deep tech companies in Southeast Asia in the next 3 years, with plans to launch a successful IPO.

Worst investment ever

Martyn made the mistake of taking a mixed currency loan on a property he wanted to invest in. The property was in London, and at the time, he was living in Singapore. Martyn took a 3 million pounds loan through a bank in Singapore.

To save himself some interest and earn some extra, he decided to borrow the money in Swiss francs. At the time, this seemed like a safe bet. Then, along came the financial crisis in 2008 and the Swiss franc strengthened against the Sterling by 50%. Martyn lost about 1.5 million pounds to the bank.

Lessons learned

• Don’t be greedy when investing.
• Always do your due diligence.

Andrew’s takeaways

• Understand where you’re investing, where you’re speculating, and where you’re hedging your position.
• Consider investing in a natural hedge where your assets match your liabilities in that currency.

Actionable advice

Don’t mix low-risk property investments with high-risk currency investments.

No.1 goal for the next 12 months

Mark’s goal for the next 12 months is to continue growing his company’s revenue.

Parting words

 

“Just be careful. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is and certainly needs proper evaluation.”Martyn Terpilowski

 

 

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