Billionaire Michael Lee-Chin shares his secrets on wealth creation and where he’s investing next – Financial Post
‘If this all blows up, we had one heck of a good time’
Publishing date:
Jun 06, 2022 • 5 days ago • 10 minute read • 15 Comments Michael Lee Chin credits his success to intellectual frameworks he developed as a youth. Photo by Handout/Patricia Trombetta/Portland Investment Counsel Inc.
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Article content
In October 1998, the stock market was crashing, but the portfolio managers at Burlington, Ont.-based AIC Ltd. were on the road as planned, travelling across Canada to convince clients that the funds they offered remained good investments, even though some of them had lost half their value.
Advertisement 2
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
In the car, the managers clung to their briefcases, looking glum. It had been a remarkable run. They had ridden the wave of the booming wealth management industry so well that they had increased the value of assets under management to nearly $10 billion by 1998 from $12 million at the start of the decade. But, in a matter of weeks, everything had changed.
CEO Michael Lee-Chin turned to them and smiled. “If this all blows up, we had one heck of a good time,” he said.
It didn’t blow up. Lee-Chin and his fellow asset managers pushed through, and eventually sold the firm to Manulife Financial Corp. for an undisclosed amount in 2009. Three decades and many investments later, Lee-Chin is worth some $1.9 billion, according to Forbes.
Advertisement 3
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Lee-Chin is Canada’s only Black billionaire, and just one of 15 Black billionaires worldwide. He’s associated with 4 “unicorns,” privately held startups that have a valuation of over $1 billion: AIC Ltd., Columbus Communications, InterEnergy Holdings Ltd., and …….