Richard chandler

Richard Chandler, Sino-Forest, and how $10 million turned into $5 billion

A seemingly minor news item on Thursday gave us the opportunity to write about someone we have wanted to discuss for some time.  The story was that Richard Chandler, a New Zealand-based billionaire, had purchased over 10 percent of Sino-Forest Corporation. Sino-Forest, of course, is the China-based timber company that plunged 83% last month when Muddy Waters published a detailed report alleging fraud.

Sino-Forest’s stock has moved up since the announcement of Chandler’s new stake, so a few astute folks have already taken an interest. However, we are betting most people just said “who is Richard Chandler?” and went on with their day.

That most people do not know who Richard Chandler and his brother Christopher are is not surprising, as they have been extremely secretive since they started investing in 1986. That is except for a single interview they did with Institutional Investor Magazine back in 2006. Since that article was published, the brothers have gone their separate ways and Richard now operates the Mandolin Fund which is the entity that purchased the Sino-Forest stake.

While we have no horse in the race, we have found the Sino-Forest situation to be fascinating. On the day the Muddy Waters report was released, the market had the following set of information: In one corner you had a virtually unknown one-man shop write a report suggesting fraud at Sino-Forest. But in the other corner, the largest shareholder of Sino Forest was John Paulson. Over the last two years, the announcement of a Paulson investment in a company has been enough to cause that stock  to have a pretty good rally. Those facts would have suggested that the market would have shrugged off the Muddy Waters report and continued to coat-tail Paulson. However, the opposite ended up occurring and the stock plunged. Paulson even followed suit – selling out his entire position a few days later.

Ever since Paulson sold his stake, most folks have presumed Sino Forest to be uninvestible. That was until the Chandler purchase.