Topic: How To Invest

Good morning, Pat. I've been reading a lot about Pacific Tycoon. They promise good returns for low risk. You buy a shipping container, and they then lease it out for a 70%-30% split. I'm wondering what your opinion on this company is. Thank you.

Article Excerpt

Pacific Tycoon (www.pacifictycoon.com) is a Hong Kong-based firm that promises to buy shipping containers on your behalf—with a minimum initial investment of $4,100 U.S.—and then lease them out for you. It offers two options: Under option one, Pacific Tycoon guarantees you a minimum return of 12% a year, payable monthly, on a long-term lease for your container. The company will also buy your container back from you at the price you paid if you let them lease it for you for three years. Option two is a “maximized rental agreement,” where Pacific Tycoon rents your container to shippers with “urgent demands due to lack of container availability.” This aims for returns of 30% a year. We see a number of risks with Pacific Tycoon. The main one is that the 12% or 30% returns seem extraordinarily high—especially as Pacific Tycoon takes 70% of the rental income as its fee. That would imply lease rates well above current market rates. It also implies that the containers fully…