A Lesson in Luxury Assets

[Music] Excellency ladies and gentlemen a very good afternoon to you all and thank you for joining us my name is Ln Naza I'm the head of business news at Sky News Arabia and I am both thrilled and honored to be part of this event and share stage with distinguished panelists we don't have much time and we have so much to discuss so I'm going to Dive Right In Charles let me start with the um investment adq did they acquired a minority stake in SES could you explain the significance of this investment and how it might influence or support your plans for growth expansion and Innovation sure um thank you very much um our new partnership with adq and by extension Abu Dhabi more broadly is uh tremendously exciting next chapter for us at soues we are a 280 year old um company um and this investment uh powers powers us into the future I think beyond the capital itself um clearly it deepens our strategic connection to um not just the UAE but to the Middle East more broadly which for us um I think as you've heard a lot at this at this conference is one of the most significant uh growth opportunities in the world and we're very committed to developing it um and then lastly you know we think about some of the other areas of focus here in the UAE whether it's uh cryptocurrency or artificial intelligence and again it opens of new areas of possibility for us to develop our business in the world of Art and luxury um against those exciting areas of growth amazing Iman uh you have here amazing comic books with significant value I need you to tell me why they are so expensive and explain a little bit about them well I think uh rather than expensive I think of them as valuable and and almost invaluable because they capture history um you know you have Action Comics one uh both of the the highest graded copies uh in the market uh on on stage there and to think of you know to think about history and to realize that the day before that comic book was published there was no Superman in the world wow and the same thing goes for Spider-Man and Iron Man those are the first appearances of both uh characters and so to the comic book fan and to the fans of that particular genre and culture they captur that history that that day that morning there was no Spider-Man there was no Iron Man in the world and there was no Superman which is to us inconceivable and so the value of them U is you know very high because one they represent that history but second of all they're the highest graded copies that are out in the market and so to have survived since 1938 to now and be almost I mean it's a 9.0 out of 10 to survive that history all of these years the elements everything to still be almost like the day it was published is incredible please forgive me for this question but what is the total value of those four books well I mean estimated um The Action Comics uh one is well above $10 million okay which one is the most expensive piece the the ACT both of because they're they're twins essentially you know so we could have an auction right now and determine the value if you want no problem right you're in the room the the number kind of you know makes them the same they're they're too slightly different just like we would have you know if you have twins even identical they're not identical d uh completely uh but um The Action Comics one uh are the the most valuable comic books because he uh Superman and the story of Superman started the entire uh superhero genre superheroes didn't exist before Superman caped superheroes didn't exist exactly so I'm going to steal one of them before before I wrap up Alex uh we'll move to you um what business principles uh have contributed to making Richard Mill uh one of the World's Most Wanted luxury brands in such a very short time compared to similar Brands first I would like to say that I'm very I'm I'm a huge comic book buff and to be in the presence of this one I would never thought that I would be there next to it uh to answer your question I mean it's it's a lot of principle that we have that that uh that make the brand what it is but uh you can start by saying that uh creation for us is everything development is everything uh we want to make sure that we are always something to say something new to say and to bring uh uh on the table then if we talk purely about business it's a very selective distribution we don't produce that many watches so we want to make sure what is the criteria you follow say again what is the the criteria you follow uh the criteria is just to make sure that we can control everything from big beginning to the end when it comes to the distribution and the allocation of the watches how can I get a by going to one of our Boutique uh talk with our very nice and very well trained staff and cross finger okay I'll tell them I will stand by the CEO right yes yes definitely we go after if you want okay when I have a half a million dam I'll definitely do that thank you Alex um back to you Charles uh can you tell us uh how the company can enhance the experience for premium clients and how has this service evolved over time well I I just wanted to start by um agreeing uh on the how special it is to be in the presence of these extraordinary um um objects here because you know you've been asking about value uh value is subjective I really don't think the value is a function of passion is a function of the symbolism they represent of the feeling that it generates it's very very hard to quantify um the the price on the cover of those comic books is probably 5 cents or something 10 cents um and we're talking about them being worth however many millions um and so I think that you know when we talk about um um you know presenting art presenting luxury objects whether it's in a retail setting um in an exhibition uh certainly in you know what we do um the exhibition and how you present things how you curate is so important and the experience because you need people to have the context to have the education to um to be in the in the mood to be in the right you know his frame of mind to really experience and understand what they're looking at so for us you know we deal in physical objects we sold uh nearly $8 billion of um art and luxury last year um and it's all about creating the right you know context for the objects whether it is a uh 50 million Mercedes an extraordinary one-of-a-kind comic book um or a banana duct tape to a wall but also I think he has to he has to bring it up yeah I mean the banana yeah I mean he's the only person who can right so it be the only time we're talking about a banana duct tape to a wall this week uh but I think actually you know as a comment on this question of value and luxury it says it all I mean it's quite funny but it gets to the point of what is valued you know it's a banana duct tape to a wall that's sold for 6.25 million and when it first sold in 2018 for $120,000 people thought that was bananas and uh and then for six years later for that to have appreciated this significantly it shows that you know it the person bought it because they thought it was a powerful conceptual art statement um and it was proven out to also be a very good investment but that's not necessarily why they bought it I think that that says a lot about the community and the audience and how people approach you know the experience is and ultimately what they buy and why they buy it you also have the sorry the subject of trust I mean you know a brand uh like uh like yours that has built a reputation where in that environment there's also the element of trust that you've curated something that you've presented something that is worth investing in you don't just because somebody's looking to sell something it doesn't mean that it's worth selling it's true in everything that all of us do the the level that it has to be authentic it has to be correct it has to be trusted um I couldn't agree more yeah I totally agree like without making sure that people will believe everything you say and will uh uh believe everything you do you it cannot work like if you want to create value and that's why for example very quickly about us uh since the very first day we put a big emphasis on Service uh after Self Service for the for the for the Watchers because we wanted to make sure we're very young brand and we had it to prove to people that in 100 years from now we will still be there and we will still be taking care of our watches we couldn't be the flavor of the mons we have to prove that we are here seriously if I ask you about one thing you believe it is the secret behind your business would it be value or passion it's both it has to be both if it's not both it's the merging of both yeah I think it's the intersection of um you know kind of a market based mindset we are a Marketplace but also um a passion and trust and the and the power of symbolism so the merger of of those things together is what drives what drives value thank you Charles um back to you Aman toiz presents a tremendous opportunity for fans and collectors in the world to engage with this Market in a new way how do you see this evolving going forward well what we've um the the the area of tokenization is a is a big passion of ours and we're big Believers in it to the point where you know we intend to tokenize ourselves I've built a platform with a team um starting with social and then recently buying a stock exchange um where we've merged the two with the idea that Community ownership is a very powerful tool that has yet to be unlocked uh fan bases being able to own a piece of the things that they care about and being able to drive culture and owning a piece of culture whether it's a collection of comic books which I I am considering um tokenizing and having the the fans be able to own a piece of to a football team or a game or a movie uh culture is kind of you know being decided on by a very few a select few who are deciding what we're consuming how the the movement of uh culture in in Into the Future looks like and what tokenization does coupled with the social network allows to happen is for the fans to come together and buy into the things that they care about back them and for those things to reward those fans uh in a journey that they go on together and today we're really proud that U and we're announcing that we're partnering with Avalanche um who are now uh investors in in our platform um and what Avalanche bring to the to the table is the scalability that we need for this very big idea we're looking to unlock potentially trillions in fan based assets that are sitting uh waiting for the fans to be able to back them and what tokenization is really if we wanted to sum it up it's the IPO of anything and so if we can IPO fan-based assets and bring fans to the table and have a social network be the interface between investment and fandom and these you know and connect between fandom and these fan-based assets I think we're looking at a very new Marketplace of alternative assets that can be driven by Passion in an environment that they can trust and unap potential right absolutely um back to you Alex based on what you uh on your answer uh um you said that Innovation is Central uh to your company and I would I'm very curious to know what which Innovations are your favorites and what makes them stand out to you when I saw the question and when I heard that we only had 20 minute that was very hard for me uh there's a lot of things I love what I I will say more generally what I love about our Innovation is the fact that we work very hard and it's very difficult for us to make things very easy for the user of the watch as the owner of the watch so I will say that for example if you take our carbon TPT that is still like very different than any other carbon people can can propose other brand can propose the goal is to have a very striking aspect like aesthetical aspect but also a durability that nobody can match so it's very easy for the customer to wear that watch because it's light but it's also super resistant now we also have some function like the watch that I'm wearing uh has the fast winding meaning that when you put your watch you can just press that button and it will start up your watch compared to just playing with the crown forever and hoping that your watch will whine you just press a button it's all of those thing that are very difficult for us to do but we love that we love the challenge but very easy ultimately for the person to use thank you our last uh round of questions will be on investment because of course we were just discussing uh how U during co uh we had people rushing to invest in different assets um Charles let's start with you how do you see the growing trend of high net Forest individuals and institutions looking at art as an asset class or investment yeah well I think we've talked a bit about um you know the idea of value and and asset class I think it can sometimes be a bit dangerous to look at Art only as an investment in fact people that approach the the the market that way um I think you know often it's not the quite the right mindset you should buy something because you love it because it has meaning and value to you and then when you do it often times you end up you know creating a lot of value as a consequence or byproduct but if you look at it only as investment I think it can be dangerous that said what we're trying to do is offer more ways for high net worth clients to access our platforms whether it's going into new categories like Collectibles commics um Sports uh game warn Sports um and so on we've entered into colle collecting cars among other things recently but also you know going deeper into regions where there's a lot of opportunity of which again I think the Middle East is probably um one of the most significant lastly we're investing in technology because New Generation expect digital first experiences that have to be um made seamless with the fact that the objects are physical and so you know whether it is using token of blockchain Technology uh to support you know the interests and needs of younger collectors or investing in you know digital approaches to our markets those are all areas of investment and focus for us amazing thank you very much Aman how do you envision the future of luxury art assets um in the broader investment market and how you compare them to real estate for example or equities or bonds yeah I I completely agree I think uh a lot of people invest and they're not you know they invest in In Waves based on Trends and uh I think the smarter Investments are the ones where you have some information oh not some information as much information that you're passionate about knowing and understanding when when I got into comic book collecting I didn't go into it as an investment I went into it because I understood the characters and the significance of this and um I called I called it the impossible collection because I didn't set out to build a collection I just wanted a piece of these fantastic um characters history and so um today it's one of the best investments I've made because I know so much about it I didn't I don't buy outside of the characters that I love I don't I don't try to do that I don't look at it as an investment with a return but it's given me significant return that's where we think fan-based assets and people investing in things that they understand that they have some agency over is important and being having that as being part of your portfolio I think will be more performant than investing in something that you're just seeing in the news because you don't know when to buy when to sell you're you're completely detached of it emotionally and therefore the information is not going to be as much so you'll never sell them right I'm sorry I'm assuming you will never sell them well I you know tokenizing is a kind of selling yeah but it's more of a sharing and that's that's why I'd be willing to I like the words you use sharing I mean it very much that's the spirit of it AB 100% 100% so yeah I I you know tokenizing would be uh having the fans be able to share with me in the journey that I'm on with this collection uh it allows me to bring bring them in potentially buy books that uh I wouldn't be thinking about doing and expanding The Collection it really depends but really the idea is for people to be I believe that the people who would invest in this and be with me are people who are really passionate about this subject and that's where tokenization I think just opens it up uh to the world exactly thank you um Alex Richard uh mills's watches are often regarded as both um a work of art definitely and a luxury assets with the increasing interest in luxury art as we see uh of course as an investment class let me put it that way do you see Collectibles limited edition watches becoming more sort after alternative to traditional investment like as mention stocks or estate or bonds or I think I think we had the proof the last year that it shouldn't be looked like it it should be as some it should be look as a customer it should be look at something that you appreciate something that you like something that you dig and that you want to uh you want to own you should never be seen as a oh I'm going to buy that watch and maybe I'm going to make more money by reselling it in 10 years and it should really be look like something you want and as a brand it's also a danger to try absolutely to reach the the the the fact that your watch will become uh a a luxury asset you should be working to express yourself as a brand to make sure sure that your watches are meaningful for you and then you will see if success will will will come I would like to show our audience here watch I'm afraid we're going to have to stop it there Luma thank you so much for an amazing panel I'm standing I'm edging closer to these fantastic works of art thank you so much for talking us through a very very interesting sector I'm just having a quick look they are amazing thank you for bringing those in for us it's quite fascinating um as a market but as we know buy what you love value is subjective but I did like that uh um definition of tokenization the IPO of anything so I'll be remembering that one uh so thank you so much ladies and gentlemen for that panel [Music]