Market Discussions

This post is going to be short because I think this'll be more of a Q&A format kind of thing right now, but I'm thinking about (once we have more hard numbers on the XL Citadel BPO) setting up an investment opportunity with the BPO secured by Chribba where I'll be copying the BPO and selling BPCs. At a buy-in to the BPO of tentatively 700b, I think this is a prime opportunity to offer alliances who may be interested in building them the opportunity to avoid a 700b sunk cost and profit from their short-term savings.

Roughly speaking, my gameplan is this:

Chribba holds the BPO in a corporation, I put an alt in said corporation that has access to copy (but not move) the blueprint (expectation: BPO would be put through a lockdown vote and Chribba would be sole shareholder). I copy the blueprint, sell the BPC, and then disburse profits (minus a management percentage of probably 1-2% of sale) to shareholders in a second corporation that would have no assets and would only be used to disburse the ISK from the sale. To minimize risk of shareholder shenanigans (a concern in prior investments of this style) the ISK from the sale would not go directly to the second corporation; instead, it would go to a character I control that would then put the ISK in the corporate account and disburse immediately thereafter.

Risks:

1) Chribba moonwalks with the BPO. This is probably the least concerning risk as Chribba has handled this level of collateral before to no issue.

2) I moonwalk with a BPC or funds from a BPC sale. In this event, Chribba would be expected to handle liquidating the BPO and would have a list of investors to pay out the proceeds thereof to, and it would of course ruin my good name in EVE, which many of you know I value very highly. I also anticipate Chribba to handle liquidation of the BPO in the Hit By A Bus scenario.

3) The BPCs don't sell. I'm working up the feasibility of this idea now so that I can make arrangements far in advance for pre-orders; general expectation is that BPCs would be sold until it became a struggle to find a buyer, at which point research may be invested on the BPO to increase desirability of future BPCs and/or the BPO may be sold forward.

Exit strategy:

Generally, the exit strategy here will be to sell the BPO and disburse funds to shareholders. Individual shareholders are welcome to exit as they please by selling shares; I would be amenable to serving as a third-party to share transfers, which would be preferable as Chribba can then have a maintained list of investors should I be hit by a bus.

I'd probably charge 1b/share, and there's no real expectation right now on what return would be since this will depend on negotiated rates for the copies and the final copy time which is still in flux.

I mean, realistically I won't? Either you'll get funded, I'll get funded, or we'll both get funded. I imagine our business plans would be effectively identical.

Sabriz: Excellent point. I would certainly consider working with Chribba and Grendell both to ensure adequate arrangements are made to allow for either to be able to handle resale of the BPO. I believe Grendell to be a reasonable choice for a third party to handle this matter and find it unlikely that a deliberate deception/ploy would be made by him to acquire the BPO.

Regarding sales, I likewise don't think it is as big an issue as some are concerned it will be.

Regarding research: My expectation is to not research the print for as long as we have buyers willing to buy ME/PE0 BPCs available, and only when orders have dried up would I start researching. Since we don't have hard data yet, we don't know how efficient researching is, so I'm hesitant to put a firm protocol in place on hard caps there. Perhaps, though, a poll could be taken of all shareholders on a monthly basis when it comes to the point of "research or resell", and their wishes followed. "monthly basis" would probably be dependent on the research times, and it would probably be more like "should we research the BPO to ME2, or liquidate as-is?" as a phrasing, with the ETA of the research included.

I dunno man.... those bus drivers are pretty dangerous

Thats to bad for you Mr.

I personally liked the idea of a management fee and profit sharing more.

Atm there is some ? left, to be so dead certain that throwing your ISK away at a measly 1.5% is a good idea.
Give it some time (there is plenty of it) and then come back with an offer that most likely will be better. I mean if it gets any worse there wouldn't be any idea at all to even consider buying a BPO or trying to do a business of it...

I agree with Tom Hagen. I kinda like your ideas. If you are going to do this I might invest some ISK.