Capital Markets & Governance

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After receiving 科技巨頭解碼’s (Tech Giants Decoded) analysis of Google’s explosive new quarterly results, Robin jokes that he made the same point in early 2020. Google is beginning to reap revenue from related products: Google Photos, which began charging midyear; the long-promoted YouTube Premium subscription; Google Play commissions; and hardware sales. Related quarterly revenue reached US$6.62 billion, up 29.25% year over year. These figures refer to 2021.

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Sharing-economy giant Airbnb posted four consecutive profitable quarters. First-quarter 2023 revenue was US$1.82 billion, up 20% and above analysts’ US$1.8 billion forecast. Net income was US$117 million, compared with a US$19 million loss a year earlier and expectations of US$90 million profit. Robin’s one-line conclusion: ultimately, running a business means demonstrating your ability to make money.

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The Taiwan Innovation Board substantially relaxed its listing requirements: the first category’s minimum market capitalization fell from NT$1.5 billion to NT$1 billion, and its revenue requirement for the latest four quarters fell from NT$150 million to NT$100 million. The second, biomedical category’s market-cap threshold dropped from NT$3 billion to NT$2 billion; the third remained at NT$4 billion. The waiting period to apply for a board transfer shortened from two years after listing to one. A record of regulatory easing in Taiwan’s capital markets, as of September 2022.

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An observation from an afternoon corporate-governance class: topics like this have little to do with an ordinary, cash-strapped person. In this #WhyStartABusiness post, Robin says that if you can talk Alibaba’s 18 founding members into joining, as Jack Ma did, and persuade Joe Tsai to leave a job with an eight-figure annual salary, move to Hangzhou, and accept RMB500 a month, you may be ready to begin that great journey.

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It is time for Perfect Corp.’s financial statements. Robin’s hope is straightforward: Taiwan’s investors should grow more accustomed to negative shareholders’ equity—and, of course, so should securities regulators. A succinct observation on the gap between startup financial structures and conventional thinking about listed companies, as of November 2022.

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After FITI, the From IP to IPO Program, ended, Robin continued introducing startup teams to a listed company with a market capitalization of NT$10 billion for business discussions. There seemed to be substantial progress, and investment was being discussed, too. A brief glimpse of day-to-day work in venture capital.

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The second half of an interview with Shen Nanpeng. On an era dominated by leaders: the internet is winner-take-all, with perhaps two food-delivery companies and four or five e-commerce survivors. Mergers need clear commercial logic: no one wants 1+1=0.5, while everyone is eager for 1+1=5; investors act as advisers who articulate that logic. Three investment criteria have remained unchanged for fifteen years: the entrepreneur, industry size, and business model, including natural barriers to entry. Early-stage founder assessment remains an art. “Invest in the track rather than the racer” is a major misconception: the founder comes first, and confidence in values and ability can justify a “blind bet.” Long-term thinking requires resisting short-term temptations, intellectual honesty, and the courage to knock again on the door of a company you misjudged. Fund life matters more than size: how can you think long term with only seven or eight years?

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Three interpretations of long-term thinking: Luo Zhenyu describes compounding over time, with long-term certainty helping us withstand external uncertainty; Liang Ning describes meeting uncertainty with inner order; Harvard Business Review describes Amazon’s success as a victory for long-term thinking. The main text is a long essay by Zuoyebang founder Hou Jianbin: invest time, energy, and resources in lasting competitiveness, and ask whether each day’s work builds something or consumes it. If something can simply be bought, it does not distinguish you from peers. His examples include achieving 80% market share in photo-based question search, building an internal teacher-development system, and separating curriculum research from teaching. Milestones mean stronger core capabilities, not a listing or market share. Hiring weights culture six parts, ability three, and experience one. Written in 2020, before the subsequent upheaval in China’s tutoring industry.

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A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), also called a blank-check company, has no operating assets and promises to use its IPO proceeds to acquire a business. In 2020, roughly one-fifth of newly listed US companies used this structure. Compared with an IPO or direct listing, a SPAC skips many steps, has no lockup period, and can take a company public in weeks. Its sponsor, usually a private equity or asset management firm, covers listing costs, initially contributes about 5%, and receives 20% of the equity after listing. A private target must be acquired within two years of the IPO. For the target, it is effectively a backdoor listing through a clean shell containing only cash. Roadshows explain a vision rather than operations—“fundraising by slide deck,” in a sense. A record of the enthusiasm as of August 2020.

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Robin’s extended response to Gogoro’s announced US listing through a SPAC. First, Taiwan’s capital market: it is not psychologically ready for a business with potentially over NT$10 billion in accumulated losses, very low or negative equity, and continuing large losses. Regulators and investors need to learn together. Second, Gogoro itself: choosing the most suitable listing venue is reasonable, but US-market visibility requires a large opportunity, a top-three regional position, and high growth, as with Grab. His concerns include the potential of electric scooters, revenue concentrated in Taiwan, the closure of European partner Coup, and slowing or declining figures. Third, advice to regulators: 91APP is accepted because it has demonstrated its model. Taiwan may not yet accommodate a US$2 billion unicorn, but could best support startups valued at US$100 million–US$1 billion, attracting strong international teams to list here. Written in September 2021.

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Zhang Xiaoyu’s case course tells the story of Orange Hotel. It may not be a success story about working with capital, but it is a very real one. After selling the company, founder Wu Hai wrote that he felt like a “surrogate mother”: he had devoted his life and youth to nurturing a child, only to realize, when the final strategic investor Huazhu took Orange over from its investors, that capital might be the child’s real mother. The account has three stages. First, capital enabled rapid expansion. Orange had only 25 hotels when Carlyle came in during 2012, but more than 200 before Huazhu acquired it. Expansion exposed the disadvantages of unfamiliar local markets, however, and the company moved from insisting on directly operated hotels to franchising and reliance on partners with local resources. Wu’s original commitments gradually changed. Second came the investors’ exit. In late 2016, Carlyle sought to exit, not simply to make a quick profit: its fund had only three years left, while preparing for a domestic listing would take a year and regulatory approval was highly uncertain. Wu knew Carlyle would not force a sale if he firmly opposed it, but said he should respect investors’ wishes and fulfill his role as a surrogate mother. In February 2017, Huazhu acquired Orange Hotel outright for RMB3.65 billion. Third is Wu’s character. When valuation negotiations with Carlyle stalled, he pledged all his options under a performance-based agreement: if the business performed poorly, all the options would go to Carlyle. He wanted to protect the share value held by early investors and his team. Each of his three ventures ended in a sale. He may not have been the greatest entrepreneur, but his loyalty and authenticity offer something to learn from.

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Robin’s commentary begins: when a problem arises, solve it. KKT’s auction was suspended because there were insufficient qualifying lots, and the offering would switch to bookbuilding and allocation. The central issue was how to assign a reasonable value to companies such as KKT. Robin proposed revisiting the introduction of a cornerstone-investor framework: an IPO allocation mechanism for potentially promising startups whose valuation models are unfamiliar to the market. The issue had already been discussed in 2018. Then Financial Supervisory Commission Chair Ku Li-hsiung said the Taiwan Stock Exchange had been asked to collect international examples and study bringing in cornerstone investors before an IPO, within specified ownership proportions and price ranges, to strengthen a company’s investment value and stabilize its share price after listing. Discussions later stopped after GGR listed in the United States; supporting regulations and allocation fairness still needed work. The 2018 report discussed several related issues. Removing the profitability requirement for converting privately placed securities into publicly offered securities after three years could revive problems involving cheap allocations to selected investors and arbitrage opportunities. Unequal voting rights could undermine governance in a market where retail investors accounted for more than 60%. The exchange president had visited Gogoro to understand its needs: its large capital base made an auction unsuitable, and an IPO would require cornerstone investors to subscribe for a large amount. The securities dealers association suggested exempting IPOs of at least NT$2 billion from priority use of auctions, allowing cornerstone investors to subscribe for 40–60%, excluding company insiders and related parties, and imposing a six-month to one-year lock-up.

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Before discussing equity incentives, one distinction must be clear: incentives are primarily about encouraging future value creation, not recognizing past contributions. Recognition of past contributions is a reward; the two must not be confused. Many companies allocate shares by employees’ current tenure and positions, only to achieve the opposite of what they intended. Everyone feels they are the most capable person in the department, have contributed the most, or have served the longest. The allocation leaves everyone dissatisfied and unconvinced of others’ entitlement, intensifying internal conflict instead of motivating people. Worse, recipients may regard the shares as something they were owed all along: withholding them was a debt, so returning them deserves no thanks. For the founder, it becomes a double loss. Authority has been delegated, equity distributed, and benefits shared, yet the internal climate changes. Rules are the surface; human nature is the foundation. Using the logic of equity rewards to design equity incentives often marks the turning point toward a company’s decline. The right approach is a plan suited to the business’s own development, rather than a rigidly copied template. A mechanism focused on the future, shared benefits, and shared risks can unite founders, senior managers, and frontline employees in expanding the value of the business together.

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On October 12, 2020, SoftBank’s Vision Fund disclosed plans to establish a SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company, within two weeks. Unlike acquiring an existing listed shell, a SPAC raises money from investors to create a new shell company. Its leaders then acquire an unlisted business, effectively bringing that business to the public market. Vision Fund CEO Rajeev Misra said the SPAC would give portfolio companies a route to listing amid high market uncertainty. It would target growth companies in later funding rounds, with capital coming partly from the Vision Fund and partly from market investors. The backdrop was the popularity of SPACs in 2020. Bloomberg Businessweek reported that SPACs had raised US$41 billion that year, more than in the preceding ten years combined, and accounted for 40% of U.S. IPOs. The Verge suggested that uncertainty in the stock market was a reason: traditional IPOs could be priced too high or too low, with increasingly unpredictable market reactions. SPACs reduced that risk to some extent by providing a predictable valuation range. Companies seeking a listing could avoid an IPO roadshow and dealings with numerous institutional investors, negotiating instead with the SPAC’s controlling party. A listing could be completed in as little as a few weeks. These are reports and claims from October 2020.

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Robin reflects on a recent conversation with the head of a listed company. If the tariff gap between China and Southeast Asian countries is 20–30%—with Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia at roughly 19–20%, and China at 40–50%—manufacturing in China can still offer substantial advantages. One key factor is supply-chain completeness. Consider a screw: when equipment breaks in Vietnam, a replacement part might take more than a day to arrive before production can restart. In China, a replacement might arrive in five or ten minutes. That small example extends to equipment maintenance, components, consumables, raw and auxiliary materials, suppliers’ around-the-clock responsiveness, and their eagerness to win an order. Decades of accumulated supply-chain capabilities have continually raised the bar in China. Although Southeast Asia has been rising, its role remains concentrated in labor-intensive production and final assembly. Building a complete chain from materials to equipment could take another decade or more. Instead, manufacturers can import Chinese automation equipment and materials, assemble products locally, and sell them abroad—hence the discussion of disguising products’ country of origin. The post closes with Taiwan: its semiconductor supply chain has gradually developed, helped by the industry’s “sacred mountain” cultivating domestic equipment, consumables, and fab-facility capabilities. The most advanced lithography and etching equipment may still be some way off, but a complete supply-chain system provides a relative competitive advantage that can lessen tariff impacts.

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Fengtouquan draws a lesson from UNIQLO. Founded in 1984, the company grew fastest between 1990 and 2010, precisely Japan’s economically weak “lost two decades.” Overall GDP barely grew and even declined slightly, while the apparel industry shrank by 50%. Yet UNIQLO, relying on Japan’s domestic market, increased revenue from ¥5.2 billion in 1990 to ¥814.8 billion in 2010—more than 150-fold—and profit grew 1,500-fold. Only after 2010 did international expansion become the main growth driver. The lesson is that the macroeconomy certainly has problems of its own, but the development of individual companies is not necessarily so tightly bound to it. That can give investors considerable confidence. Robin’s view: even during a macroeconomic downturn, individual breakout businesses still have opportunities. During twenty years of constrained consumption in Japan, UNIQLO seized the opportunities of its time and emerged as an exceptional performer, making Tadashi Yanai Japan’s richest person.

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Robin argues that income polarization in Taiwan will become increasingly pronounced. In the future, 50–70% of people may pay no income tax, while the top 30%, or even the top 5% or 10%, could support the entire income-tax contribution. Fewer taxpayers would not necessarily mean declining revenue: the top 30% remain on a high-growth trajectory, earning more and therefore paying more. Even as taxpayer numbers shrink, collections can exceed government budget estimates, with most of the contribution coming from a small group at the top. The post gives this distribution: 0.13% of people pay 17.47% of income tax; 0.85% pay 41.19%; 2.79% pay 60.75%; and 7.66% pay 77.21%. A small group, around 10% of Taiwan’s population, benefits from globalization, AI development, and U.S.–China confrontation. They earn “Global Pay” and can expect further income growth. A much larger group earns “Local Pay,” primarily in domestic services or traditional industries competing intensely with China. Their income growth may be limited, stagnant, or even persistently negative. As high earners drive inflation and increases in goods and housing prices, Robin argues that government needs tax and subsidy measures to support disadvantaged groups left behind by globalization and AI. They may feel disconnected from the past decade’s economic growth while experiencing its inflation keenly, creating a sense of relative deprivation.

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This book-excerpt-style compilation argues that capitalists’ investment is the primary driver of economic growth and the source of their power. Capitalism does not fear powerful capitalists; it fears capitalists who will not invest. Holding money simply to feel secure lets society down. Government’s most important role is to encourage them to invest. The tension between investing and reluctance to invest recurs throughout history, with confidence as the decisive variable. If capital is prosperity’s economic fuel, confidence is its emotional fuel. Economic growth is always about flesh-and-blood people, rather than an automatic mechanism. Historical experience, the compilation argues, does not support the idea that leaving markets alone will automatically allow entrepreneurs to make the economy thrive. Capitalists often prefer to hold their money, requiring government action—not coercion, but measures such as fiscal or monetary policy. Robin’s view: investment drives national economic growth, and venture capital is at the forefront of investment that advances innovation and change. The state should act more proactively to channel capital into venture investment and make it an important force in the country’s future.

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Robin recalls a story from his underwriting days. After filing an IPO application, he wanted to pray for a smooth review and told his supervisor he would visit Xingtian Temple to pray to Guan Gong, the martial god of wealth. His supervisor warned him against it: Guan Gong embodies righteousness and vanquishes demons, so a company as questionable as this one would surely be struck down. He suggested another temple instead, claiming it was so efficacious that spiritually sensitive visitors could feel a blessing of sacred light and see a deity manifest. Robin joked that this could qualify as a top secret of Taiwan’s capital-markets industry. He offered a clue: a famous temple in southwestern Taipei with nearly 50,000 Google reviews, apparently the highest number among the city’s temples. After moving into venture capital, he discussed investment-related prayers with a senior acquaintance, who recommended a nearby Earth God temple rather than a major temple. Each neighborhood has its own, much like a neighborhood chief with a designated jurisdiction.

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Robin observes that Taiwan’s exports have boomed while domestic demand has remained weak over the past three to five years, rapidly widening the wealth gap. Over the preceding five years, the world experienced a once-in-a-century pandemic, an AI boom, and U.S.–China confrontation. He argues that Taiwan ranks among the top three beneficiaries: the pandemic drove demand for electronics used remotely; AI generated overwhelming orders for semiconductors and servers, outpacing factory expansion; and U.S.–China tensions shifted electronics orders from China to Taiwan. Export-related technology stocks, including semiconductors, servers, and components such as thermal-management products, surged, and people in those industries earned handsomely. Domestic demand faced pressure from weak tourism, labor shortages and rising wages, and inflation including higher utility costs. Traditional manufacturers such as machinery companies also faced intense competition. A minority riding these trends saw incomes soar and pushed up housing and goods prices, while the majority outside them faced greater economic pressure. Robin adds that declining birth rates are, in his personal view, the larger and more irreversible crisis.

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Robin shares statistics identified as being from November 2024. After the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s market capitalization exceeded 90 trillion, its listed companies’ combined value had reached eighth or ninth globally, roughly equal to Germany’s stock market. The comparison gives Germany’s GDP as about US$4.31 trillion, with 85 million people and US$52,000 per person, and Taiwan’s GDP as about US$930 billion, with 23 million people and US$41,000 per person. Germany’s GDP was 4.6 times Taiwan’s, but their stock-market values were already comparable, even excluding Taiwan’s Taipei Exchange. Returning to an Economist article, Robin argues that Taiwan benefited from the preceding five years’ AI boom: outside the United States, its increase in stock-market capitalization was second only to that of Nasdaq, the market at the origin of the AI boom. In that sense, he considers it reasonable to call Taiwan the greatest beneficiary outside the United States, while noting that the gains were concentrated in its core competitive strengths.

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Robin traces Taiwan’s electronics-industry family tree. Beyond the companies descended from two networks—one including 三愛電子 (San’ai Electronics), the Kinpo–Compal group, Inventec, and Quanta; the other including Acer, ASUS, Wistron, Pegatron, and BenQ—there are Hon Hai, Lite-On, Delta Electronics, Advantech, and others. Lite-On was the first electronics stock to list. Semiconductors and electronics together once accounted for more than 70% of Taiwan’s stock-market capitalization. As these companies expanded around the world, they brought Taiwan greater global influence. Many of these electronics businesses trace their establishment to the 1970s. Electronics, including semiconductors, once represented only 2% of Taiwan’s market value, when financials, petrochemicals, textiles, and food stocks dominated. Through the continuing efforts of earlier generations of entrepreneurs, Taiwan became a technology island that drew the world’s attention.

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The short piece asks: I have 10,000 and my colleague has 1 million. If we both invest in something yielding 10% annually, will we be equally wealthy at year-end? No—the gap will widen from 990,000 to 1,089,000. When growth rates are identical, the absolute gap between us and the leader keeps growing. Those behind, or new entrants, must find a faster growth engine to have a chance of catching up and overtaking. Robin adds that in recent years, he has found larger companies also growing rapidly. With higher gross margins, they earn more and more: revenue growth of 30% can accompany profit growth of 50–80%.

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Robin observes that TNMG, an Asia-focused next-generation digital technology and media group listed on Nasdaq, had reached a market capitalization of US$5.6 million. Its businesses span media, AI, traffic, data analytics, advertising technology, ecommerce, and B2B. It attracts more than 45 million unique users each month, with Japan its largest market and Taiwan second. Yet with 2024 revenue of US$48.5 million, its price-to-sales ratio was only 0.12. Robin poses two questions: might a Taiwan listing offer the chance of a tenfold market valuation? And does the group need such a wide range of businesses, or would it be better to focus on one or two and make them globally competitive?

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Robin points to the chapters on calculating investment-project returns in corporate finance or financial management textbooks. If time permits, he suggests revisiting the later chapters and working through the calculations again. He recalls getting very high grades in financial management in graduate school, with a laugh. His personal impression now, however, is that even elegant financial models and projections often prove less accurate than a boss’s experience-based, off-the-cuff decision. Building a model still requires many conditional assumptions, such as the growth rate.

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Robin reviews revenue, gross margin, profit, and market value for two leading Taiwanese third-party payment businesses. 綠界 (ECPay, 6763) had 2024 revenue of 1.6 billion, a 41% gross margin, after-tax net profit of 350 million, and market value of 11.1 billion. LINEPAY (7722) had revenue of 6.3 billion, a 32% gross margin, after-tax net profit of 650 million, and market value of 38.6 billion. His impression is that fintech valuations are high, but there is still a benchmark: payments giant Visa, with full-year revenue potentially reaching US$40 billion, an 80% gross margin, market value of US$660 billion, and a price-to-earnings ratio of about 34. These figures reflect the publication date and have not been independently verified.

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Robin observes that Taiwanese companies have recently been keen to carve out subsidiaries for IPOs. Acer is a representative example, while Hon Hai previously carved out quite a few as well. Yet he seems to see this less often abroad. He asks whether Tesla would separate power generation, energy storage, systems, software, distribution, maintenance, and finance into numerous subsidiaries, or remain a single Tesla and build a much larger market value. The underlying approaches to management and capital-market operations are very different.

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Robin explains the Pioneer Stock Board. Quotes for ordinary Emerging Stock Board companies are not visible on Yahoo Finance, but Pioneer Stock Board quotes are. Its trade-matching system broadly follows the model for Taipei Exchange-listed companies, allowing buyers and sellers to see individual bid and ask prices and lot quantities. Investor eligibility restrictions still apply.

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Robin recalls that Mr. Qiu told everyone the previous day to pay close attention to the Securities and Exchange Act’s insider-trading provisions. Many colleagues serve as directors, especially of exchange-listed and over-the-counter-listed companies; at the time of the post, Robin was a corporate shareholder’s designated director representative at eight companies. Sometimes people do not realize their actions break the law, or how serious the consequences can be.

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Robin cites The Economist’s observation that Taiwan benefited from the preceding five years’ AI boom, with its stock-market capitalization increasing at a rate second only to Nasdaq in the United States, the origin of the boom. He adds that it is reasonable to call Taiwan the largest beneficiary outside the United States, while noting that the benefit is highly concentrated in the foundations of Taiwan’s core competitive strengths. The figures are quotations reflecting their original time, not current facts.

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Robin compiles Liu Songbo’s views from Dedao’s 30 Lectures on Corporate Governance. Startups easily fall into disputes over interests because business models, the importance of resources, and individual contributions continue changing dramatically after the equity structure is set. Haidilao’s Zhang Yong and Shi Yonghong agreeing to transfer shares after initially holding 50% each is a positive example; the dispute between Li Ziqi and Weinian is a cautionary one. The solution is to leave room for adjustment in equity design. First, reserve an equity pool rather than allocating all shares at once. Second, use vesting, granting equity progressively against milestones. Third, prearrange exit mechanisms, including conditions and prices for recovering equity. Ning Xiangdong also proposes a “pivotal minority”: two shareholders with 50% each give up 0.5% apiece, allowing an impartial third party trusted by both to hold 1% and mediate disputes. The post closes with Xu Xiaoping’s observation: do not pursue shared interests through brotherhood; build brotherhood through shared interests.

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Xu Xiaoping proposes three principles for equity design. First, hold a large stake without standing alone. Equal splits such as 50:50 or 3:3:3 suggest the team has no leader, but 98:1:1 does not create genuine partners either. A reasonable structure gives the largest shareholder at least 50% and the second at least 10%, with examples including 6:2:2, 6:3:1, 5:3:2, or 7:2:1. Second, earn equity before receiving it. Shares should not be handed over on day one, but earned through four years of vesting. After one year, a cofounder earns a quarter; someone who leaves or proves unsuitable takes only the earned portion. Third, add rather than take away. For a strong later recruit, issue options from an expanded pool rather than demanding shares back from early shareholders. Most startups reserve a 10–20% option pool on day one, preserving flexibility for future equity allocation.

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Robin notes Appier’s planned March 31, 2021 listing on Japan’s Mothers market, under stock code 4180. Its prospectus was in Japanese. He shared several images that he himself guessed were balance sheets and income statements, with units he guessed were thousands of yen, and included the Japanese and English Japan Exchange Group links. His personal view was that one could certainly buy Appier in Japan, but those choosing to keep their capital in Taiwan, especially if they could not read Japanese, could pay closer attention to 91APP. This is a historical observation and personal view, not investment advice.

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Robin introduces Thomas Friedman’s Golden Arches theory: two countries with McDonald’s restaurants will not go to war with each other, because societies with McDonald’s have stable economies and strong middle classes, and their interest in development and consumption outweighs ideology. At its core, this is an expectation of rational human behavior. Extended further, countries in the same global supply chain will not fight each other. Robin hopes economic development and democratization will advance peace, but ends with a qualification: human nature and the desire for power are harder to predict.

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Robin compares US March CPI inflation of 8.5% year on year with Taiwan’s 2.47%. He argues that Taiwan’s low inflation reflects deliberate government price controls, with the Fair Trade Commission and Ministry of Economic Affairs intervening when companies announce increases. He cites CPC: frozen natural gas prices meant it absorbed 104.8 billion in costs in 2021 and another 51.7 billion in the first quarter of 2022, losing roughly half its capital. He speculates that with free-market pricing, imported energy and food, and wage increases amid labor shortages, Taiwan’s year-on-year CPI inflation might exceed 10%—Robin’s hypothetical scenario.

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Robin discusses the considerations in choosing a listing venue. Taiwan offers a low listing threshold—roughly NT$30–50 million in after-tax profit—low costs, reasonable liquidity, and convenient access to capital. He uses GGR as an example: reports put its pre-listing fundraising at US$334 million before its US listing in April 2022, followed more recently by a US$75 million private placement. That provided over US$400 million in two years for a cash-intensive business model. Robin is cautious about whether it could have raised over NT$10 billion by staying in Taiwan. At this stage, he sees Taiwan as suitable for pre-listing raises of NT$100 million–1 billion. For entrepreneurs, listing should support the next phase of growth rather than a rush to cash out.

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Robin argues that approving CTBC Financial’s tender offer for Shin Kong Financial could set off a wave of takeover battles in Taiwan’s financial industry. Larger groups Fubon and Cathay have deeper capital resources and tighter family ownership. If they followed the same approach, privately owned financial holding companies could face annual battles over management control and share ownership, with implications for financial stability. His other suggestion is that major shareholders of financial holding companies should keep increasing their ownership stakes. With excessively dispersed ownership, a company could become the next target in a wave of consolidation.

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Robin believes Gogoro’s decision to list on Nasdaq through a SPAC was reasonable in the context of 2021–2022 and should not be judged by its subsequent share-price performance. Reports put the capital raised at US$344 million, roughly NT$11–11.5 billion. Gogoro is fundamentally a capital-intensive undertaking; in Taiwan, raising NT$1 billion in a single IPO already counts as a large deal. Robin relays a securities executive’s remarks at a seminar: Taiwan’s IPOs may be relatively small, but follow-on offerings are easy to carry out and liquidity is reasonable. SMEs can raise additional capital every two to three years, advancing through small, rapid steps. A good company may have the opportunity to grow more than twentyfold over twenty years.

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Robin lists applications for registration on the Emerging Stock Board: 83 in 2024, 81 in 2025, and 18 by January 22, 2026. He believes the 2026 total could exceed 100 and reach a record. In 2025, there were also 45 applications for exchange listing, including the Taiwan Innovation Board, and 44 for OTC listing. Securities firms have many deals but a severe shortage of advisory staff, making it harder for small companies to find a sponsor. The number of listed and emerging-stock companies has grown tenfold, yet capital increasingly concentrates in large technology stocks. Robin offers two suggestions: connect with the main market trends—find a way to make TSMC a customer—and keep increasing your scale.

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Robin uses ASPEED as an example. Its IPO offer price was NT$110, raising about NT$224 million at a listing market capitalization below NT$2.5 billion. Thirteen years later, its market value had reached NT$352 billion, meaning roughly 99% of its value was created after listing. He sees an IPO as a new starting point. Startups should not become trapped by valuation; choosing good partners and raising growth capital quickly can matter more. He recalls a statistic suggesting that US-listed companies’ pre-IPO valuations averaged less than 4% of their current value. His two lessons are to advance IPO planning promptly and avoid obsessing over every pre-IPO fundraising valuation.