** READ THIS ARTICLE ** National Post
September 12, 2000
Alberto Vilar's life story more riches than rags
Technology stocks his key to wealth, opera his passion
Diane Francis
Financial Post
NEW YORK CITY - Alberto Vilar's 32-room, three-storey
apartment overlooks the United Nations and as I entered his
massive black-and-gilt rococo dining room he apologized for the
mess.
"I had a dinner party last night for 50," he explained.
Mr. Vilar is a riches-to-rags-to-riches story. He was born wealthy
in Cuba to a family that lost its fortune after the communist
revolution.
A teenager studying abroad, he earned mathematics degrees and
a PhD in economics and has applied his knowledge to become one
of the world's foremost investors in technology stocks. He also
happens to be the biggest patron of opera in the world and in
the past year has given away US$100-million in gifts to the
world's most prominent opera houses such as New York's Met,
Covent Garden, Vienna and Salzburg.
Asked how much he was worth, he replied: "I could give away
US$50-million a year, live to 85 years of age and still be a
billionaire."
Mr. Vilar does not look like an arts patron. He looks like a banker. He does not look like most
dot-com billionaires either, clad in jeans with nerdy ways. He's very buttoned-down and
very classy. Tall and thin, he rarely cracks a smile and appears to be a cross in personality
between a Jesuit and an academic. He's a disciplined and competitive Wall Street portfolio
manager.
But his greatest passion happens to be the grandest, most flamboyant and emotive art form
of all, the opera -- even though ideas, not emotions, are his stock in trade at work. He, and
his crack team of researchers, mine opportunities through hard-nosed analysis and rabid
financial investigation. He's also ruthlessly confident.
"I have the best record of any investor in technology in the world. I've been correct on
technology for 25 years. I was the first into Microsoft and at one time owned 10% of
Cisco," said the patrician patron.
He was also one of the first to buy shares in AOL, Yahoo! and Amazon.com when they were
fledgling startups. His style is to invest in promising companies up to and following their
going public.
His firm Amerindo Investment Advisors Inc.'s annual composite returns have averaged
54.7% for the past five years and three years ago he launched a mutual fund investing
early in technology companies called Amerindo Technology Fund, which increased last year
by 250%. He started three new funds after the recent market correction (which he
predicted) that are up in value by more than 100% too.
"My advantage is that the world doesn't understand technology," said Mr. Vilar. "Most of
what I read is amateurish, including what Wall Street puts out. I think there is US$3-trillion
to US$4-trillion worth of wealth opportunities in the next five to seven years. I'm an
unabashed bull on technology stocks."
He bases his forecast on the fact that Internet stocks represent only US$1-trillion out of
the total market capitalization of US$13-trillion to $14-trillion. As the economy rapidly
digitizes, Internet companies will be the beneficiaries and soar in value.
"In a few years, up to 50% of business will be B2B [business to business] electronically,
which represents a major change. This has an enormously positive implications," he added.
Amerindo's current B2B "darling" is Ariba, which links buyers and sellers of office supplies
over the Internet. He bought Ariba at 60¢ a share three years ago and it's now at US$160 a
share.
At any given time, his funds hold up to 40 companies and investments are roughly 15% in
health-care technology, biotech and Internet technology for health care. The rest are in
telecom stocks or Internet enablers.
Despite enormous personal wealth, he thrives on hard work. "I'm like a junkie. I love to make
money to give it away," he said sternly.
This makes his life an interesting study in contrasts: He invests professionally in enterprises
that will throw off huge amounts of cash and personally in money-losing opera houses.
"Opera never pays its way. It is so expensive to mount a production that it always loses
money," he explained. "But what would the world be without Mozart?"
Curious, I asked him what he would like on his epitaph.
"First I hope that won't be necessary soon," he joked, then squinted and said, "He was a
very generous man who loved the arts and wanted others to share his love of music."
dfrancis@nationalpost.com