Forbes Global, September 18, 2000

Asian Single Currency?

Nearly a year ago we profiled Richard Werner, an economist turned entrepreneur whose provocative method of credit analysis had accurately predicted Asia's crisis and Japan's economic recovery (Oct 18).

Now Werner is taking his market forecasting company, Profit Research Center, Ltd., into the fund business. In late July he launched an independent fund management company, the Liechtenstein-based ProfitFundCom, and its first offshore fund, the Japan Asia Equity Fund. He will also use his liquidity analysis and company-specific research to make stock picks. Again, he has a provocative thesis: some Asian countries, including China and Japan, will adopt a single currency, akin to the euro, within a decade; possibly as early as 2005.

"If you look at things that no one else is looking at," says Werner, "you can do well for your investors." He sees investment opportunities in the convergence of interest rates and other changes linked to the currency union. By year's end Werner expects to launch a second fund, applying his theories globally.