Page 313 - James Caan - The Real Deal

30 · Private Equity

return and accepted the offer. There comes a point in every market
where the prices get a bit silly, and that’s when you should sell and
take your profits.
There’s one more thing I should say about Avanta. When David
came to see me, he had already pitched to twenty other investors
and no one had seen the opportunity. They had looked at external
aspects – like the fact that commercial property was in the
doldrums and that the serviced office sector was so weak after the
dotcom fallout that Regus’s share price had plummeted. They got
so distracted by the clutter that they failed to see the opportunity.
But the real opportunity here was David: he was bright, eager, well
connected, and he’d done his research. I had looked at him and
asked myself: do I think this guy can do it? As always, what I had
really invested in was the person.

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