As many readers of this blog know I am a big fan and happy shareholder of M1NT Shanghai. The club is doing very well, and on weekend nights the place is completely packed. The success of both M1NT Shanghai and Hong Kong now leads to the opening of a M1NT in Beijing.
The location was announced today, M1NT Beijing will open on the 3rd and 4th floors of the Dolce & Gabbana Building, in the same complex that also houses the Park Hyatt. The design will once again be extraordinary, with Andy Hall of MQ Studio leading the architecture and design, and Nathan Thompson of Flaming Beacon in charge of the lighting design.
The Grand Opening will be on New Year’s Eve 2009. Interested in becoming a shareholder of what will probably be the best club in Beijing? You can download an Information Memorandum with all the details and benefits here (pdf). By filling out page 24-26 you can apply to become a shareholder. For me M1NT is much more than a financial investment, but it’s always nice to know that If things keep on going well M1NT plans to go IPO in 2011 already.
I look forward to the opening of M1NT Beijing!
Thanks Marc,
The Soft Opening date with Justin Timberlake after party in M1NT Beijing will be sent to you and the other shareholders by SMS.
Are you in tonight for dinner with Jimmy Choo?
Alistair Paton
Founder, M1NT
Very interesting.
And that website of Andy Hall is extremely good. Loved the 706 movies. Wished we had something like that overhere in Xiamen.
Just went through the Info Memorandum… I have to say, it's a job quite well done for what it is. Great usage of NLP techniques, particularly Ericksonian-style hypnosis. Great anchoring of keywords and images, good seduction job, for sure.
M1NT,Good selected location in Beijing CBD,so will you open M1NT in Shenzhen CBD,Ali.?
http://www.beijingboyce.com/2009/12/21/anyone-got-a-m1nt-the-fate-of-an-almost-beijing-club/
Thanks for the link. No idea what the status of the Beijing venue is, but it's a pity that it will be postponed.
With regards to the HK issue, that's something that was communicated to the shareholders a few weeks ago. The split was amicable as far as I know. Let's see if the 19% dividend comes through next month.
M1NT in the UK – CLOSED
M1NT in HK – About to be CLOSED, and then re-opened under a new name.
M1NT Beijing – NOT OPENED
M1nt Shanghai – STILL OPENED, but many shareholders asking for their money back.
M1NT Cannes – There never was such a club.
M1NT = Scam + Ponzi Scheme
RD, it seems you have some personal issues with M1NT? Go there on the weekend and you’ll see for yourself how busy it is in the club. The restaurant is often fully booked and getting a table on the rooftop terrace is difficult. The financial results are excellent. The shareholders received a 19% dividend over 2009 (yes, the money is in my bank account already) and M1NT made a profit of over HKD 13 million in the first 6 months of 2010. Shareholders will receive a 16% dividend just over the first 6 months. That doesn’t look like a scam or ponzi scheme to me, it’s actually one of the very few investments that has been profitable from the start.
Hi Marc – I had no personal issues with MINT so far. Only been a few times when visiting China. I am not an investor. But I do think M1NT is a scam.
My concern with this guy is that what he does is get investor money, and then pay out “dividends” all the while seeking new investor money based on the great results the reported. Meanwhile they suck money out of the company in “Director’s fees” before finally moving on to another country when it all collapses.
Have you seen the article below about Alistair Paton and fraud allegations?
Trust me, many of us in HK and UK have been badly burned.
Any thoughts?
http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/mail-on-sunday-london-england-the/mi_8003/is_2006_July_9/skint-mint/ai_n37857898/
Marc – thanks for publishing my comments. I had suspected you would simply block me, so I do appreciate and respect you allowing for open and free discussion.
One thing I wanted to add. You mentioned in your posting on 21 Dec 2009 that “with regards to the HK issue … the split was amicable as far as I know”.
I want to tell you that the split in HK was not at all amicable. My bf is a sh of the HK M1nt Club, and he recently received a letter from Andrew Lewis (a former busines partner of Alister Patton who now runs M1NT HK) who stated that M1NT HK is suing Alister Paton for fraud (basically claiming money stolen from the company) and they they will also take action against him for continuing to claim that M1NT HK is associated with M1NT Shanghai, when now its clearly not.
My bf invested in M1NT in good faith, and was very proud initially of his investment. But then he realised many problems. The accounts were NEVER independently audited (only ever were figures provided by Alister himself).
M1NT kept trying to issue more and more shares to new investors, despite already being well overcapitalized, which led my bf and others to believe he was simply raising more money to pay out high dividends, enabling him to keep the scheme running longer.
Many other issues came up in the end, including Alister promising to buy-back our peoples MINT shares, but then never following through.
Trust me, this thing is designed to suck money from people who like the M1NT club investor concept, but in the end, eveyone who invested gets burned.
Seriouly start digging around, and you will see what I mean. I just want to warn people, and I am angry at all the stress in cause to by bf, who went in on this with great trust at the beginning.
Thank You.
Interesting article RD, thanks for posting. I heard some stories over the past years but had not seen this article. I hope history won’t repeat itself, because I think the M1NT concept is a good one and so far M1NT Shanghai seems to be doing very well. Putting external funds in to pay dividends like in London is not a smart idea, but I can imagine someone doing it because he believes in the concept and does not want to let it die prematurely. Judging from how busy M1NT Shanghai still is I would be surprised if the place would not be profitable. To be honest, I am still very happy with my investment, not only with the financial return but also with the club that was built with it. I talk to Alistair every now and then and give him the benefit of the doubt for this venture, but it’s certainly good to be cautious.
RD, I posted the other comment before I saw your last one. I normally publish all comments unless they are spam or anonymous attacks, so no reason to block yours. I will look into the HK story, it’s not a nice one. Sorry to hear that your boyfriend got burned. I went to M1NT HK only once about 2 years ago, and it did not seem to be very busy (unlike M1NT Shanghai that’s normally packed). Well, I certainly hope the same won’t happen to Shanghai. Like I said, so far I am happy with the investment and with the quality of M1NT, but of course I will be cautious.
Still think its a good investment now?
Yup, was a scam after all! Mint was raided this last Friday and shut down indefinitely. Shareholders are furious and can not get their money back. Apparently they missed payroll and have not been paying vendors. Sorry Alistair, can’t get away with that in China. Game over buddy!
Yes funny on website, stable management. Far from stable and after all big ponzi scheme and only the early investors might have their principal back. High dividend means high risks. That is always with investing and I don’t think we need to worry about the investors, because those people often have much more money. More worried about the shadow banking and trusts in China, where also the ‘normal’ people invested.
So those who warned about this scam were right after all. M1NT was an Alisdair Patton ponzie scheme. Did you guys in China not learn from the similar scams he pulled in London and HK? So where is next for him to do it again? My guess is New York or LA, that is if he does not get mysteriously killed in the meantime by pissed off investors he ripped off.