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SCMP Reporter

University dropout KK Fong took 11 years to pay off a debt of less than S$20,000 (about HK$90,800) after being declared bankrupt in 1978 at the age of 25 after starting a gift-voucher business with former college friends.

 These days, the chubby, bubbly 46-year-old splurges more than that on lavish meals with friends. He is Singapore's first Internet IPO darling. This week's toast of the town.

 'I want! I want! I want!' screamed the headline last week across a brokerage report by Kim Eng Securities, which happens to be a co-placement agent for the issue by Mr Fong's i-One.Net International.

  Brokers seem to care little that i-One's public offer price of 38 Singapore cents a share equates to a price-earnings multiple of 20 times, making it by far the republic's most expensive IPO this year.

 As we have seen on Nasdaq, fundamentals matter little these days when it comes to Internet stocks.

 'The response to the placement shares has been overwhelming,' said Kan Shik Lum, managing director for lead manager DBS Bank's capital markets unit.

  Insiders claim the initial market response to i-One's public tranche has been similarly good.

 Subscribers to i-One's $46.2 million share offer, which closes on Thursday, will be buying into a proven family printing business, Xpress Print.

 They can also rely on a moderate stream of earnings from a diversified array of electronic publishing, multi-media, public relations, business consulting and advertising interests.

 But this is not what the market is getting excited about.

 What analysts are gambling on is its fledgling electronic commerce business, which has barely got off the ground.

 One need only walk down Singapore's main shopping street, Orchard Road, for a glimpse of what the future could hold.

 Rows of i-One kiosks, resembling phone booths, line the street, each containing state-of-the-art interactive computerised touchscreens.

 At present, they offer passers-by only information and entertainment. Come December, on-line shopping, customer-loyalty programmes and public video-conferencing facilities will be added.

 So far, 202 kiosks have been installed. Eventually, Mr Fong hopes, every public housing estate and shopping mall across the island-state will have one.

  Its services will also be available to home computer-users across Asia via the Internet.

 'The group believes that through its extensive touchscreen kiosk network, i-One will open up the world of e-commerce and on-line shopping to a large proportion of the population who may not own personal computers or are computer illiterate,' said Mr Fong.

 'Through i-One, consumers can enter a virtual shopping mall and seek out the best buys from anywhere and at any time,' he said.

  Mr Fong, known among friends as KK, is clearly a man of grand dreams and is not averse to taking risks, as his failed gift-voucher enterprise showed at a young age.

 These days he has age, experience and perhaps a touch of good fortune on his side.

 A koi (carp) pond built in the shape of a figure eight lies at the heart of his office building in Kallang Way.

  His sixth finger is also seen by some as a lucky charm.

  Mr Fong's first successful job was for HSBC Holdings' Singapore stockbroking arm.

  In 1989, he bought out the family business, Xpress Print. The company has seen tremendous growth in the past five years, doing speed printing of research reports and documents for the stockbroking community, not only in Singapore but in much of Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

 'I challenge anyone else to print faster. I'm second to none in the world in speed printing - the US, Europe, even Japan,' the consummate salesman boasted.

 His efforts helped to win the firm recognition as Singapore's Enterprise of the Year in 1994, one of several accolades it has received.

 However, Mr Fong concedes that the traditional print business 'has reached a mature stage', hence the drive to diversify.

  Not a cent has been calculated into the firm's in-house projected earnings from its highly touted and yet-unproven e-commerce business.

  Factoring in the e-commerce factor, Kim Eng analyst Yuen May Abisheganaden believes the stock is worth at least $1.16, way above the 38 cent offer price.

  'Forget others, here's the real McCoy!,' she enthuses. 'Unlike other stocks which are merely riding on the Internet hype, i-One is a genuine e-commerce play with a compelling business model.'   Chairman Lim Jit Poh also claims i-One is a 'genuine' e-commerce play, not like other companies that recently had added .com to their names.

  This was perhaps a swipe at Singapore-listed publisher Panpac Media, whose share price has almost doubled in a month after adding .com to its name to promote its Internet book-sales portal - one of many firms around the world exploiting this gimmick. (Mr Lim failed to mention that i-One.Net very recently underwent a name-change from plain Xpress.)  Panpac's share price is now trading at 170 times price earnings multiple.

 This makes i-One's 20 times sound respectable. It also provides a hint of just how high i-One's share price could soar, if as with other Internet-related stocks around the world common sense and fundamentals are ignored.

  'With price earnings multiples like that, there's no need for Singapore firms to go to Nasdaq,' said Stephen Chen, technology analyst at Kay Hian Securities.



Barry Porter reports on a bankruptcy-to-riches hero catching the Internet wave