Cash Flow Is King
SharpFokus for University of Indonesia – May 22, 2025
Thanks for attending the guest lecture with Sebastian Sharp.
Here’s everything we covered — plus tools to explore cashflow deeper.
⸻
📝 Full Talk Notes – Cashflow Is King
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1. School Fees – Why Cash Isn’t King
📜 In 1978, school fees were £770 per term. Today? £9,000.
Holding cash doesn’t keep up. It fades.
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2. Apple vs GOTO – Cash Isn’t the Same as Strength
🍏 Apple: cash = 5% of sales
📦 GOTO: cash > 100% of sales
It’s not the amount of cash — it’s the cashflow you generate that counts.
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3. My Experience – Why I Started SharpFokus
💼 I worked for a listed company that showed profit but had no real cashflow.
Eventually, the share price collapsed. That’s when I realised: profit is not the same as cashflow.
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4. Profit ≠ Cashflow – ASII.jk 2023–2024
📊 Combined profit across 2023 & 2024 was IDR 88 trillion
💧 But free cashflow was only IDR 23 trillion
That’s a huge gap — how do we explain it? Can that last?
⸻
5. Amazon – Cashflow Statement Comes First
📄 In the early 2000s, Amazon moved its cashflow statement to the front of its reports
“Judge us by what we generate.”
It became the fastest-growing company in market value ever!
⸻
6. Parable of the Talents – The Biblical Model
📖 Capital is entrusted. Cashflow is expected.
The one who multiplies is rewarded. The one who hides the capital is replaced.
This is the original capital market logic — and it still applies today.
⸻
7. GEMS vs BUMI – Cashflow Drives Valuation
💎 GEMS.jk: positive cashflow → trades at 3× assets
🪨 BUMI.jk: negative cashflow → trades at 0.5× assets
Same sector, same product — different valuation because of cashflow.
⸻
Closing Thought – Cashflow Builds Trust
🌱 Positive cashflow builds trust. More capital is given, and good things follow — growth, dividends, bonuses.
⚠️ No cashflow breaks trust. Capital gets pulled, rights issues follow, and decline begins.
The company that produces cashflow will be trusted with more.
Cashflow is real
Cashflow is strategy,
Cashflow is King 👑
⸻
Now please sign up for our FREE 3X weekly Sharpfokus Brief emails: click here
SharpFokus for University of Indonesia – May 22, 2025
Thanks for attending the guest lecture with Sebastian Sharp.
Here’s everything we covered — plus tools to explore cashflow deeper.
⸻
📝 Full Talk Notes – Cashflow Is King
⸻
1. School Fees – Why Cash Isn’t King
📜 In 1978, school fees were £770 per term. Today? £9,000.
Holding cash doesn’t keep up. It fades.
⸻
2. Apple vs GOTO – Cash Isn’t the Same as Strength
🍏 Apple: cash = 5% of sales
📦 GOTO: cash > 100% of sales
It’s not the amount of cash — it’s the cashflow you generate that counts.
⸻
3. My Experience – Why I Started SharpFokus
💼 I worked for a listed company that showed profit but had no real cashflow.
Eventually, the share price collapsed. That’s when I realised: profit is not the same as cashflow.
⸻
4. Profit ≠ Cashflow – ASII.jk 2023–2024
📊 Combined profit across 2023 & 2024 was IDR 88 trillion
💧 But free cashflow was only IDR 23 trillion
That’s a huge gap — how do we explain it? Can that last?
⸻
5. Amazon – Cashflow Statement Comes First
📄 In the early 2000s, Amazon moved its cashflow statement to the front of its reports
“Judge us by what we generate.”
It became the fastest-growing company in market value ever!
⸻
6. Parable of the Talents – The Biblical Model
📖 Capital is entrusted. Cashflow is expected.
The one who multiplies is rewarded. The one who hides the capital is replaced.
This is the original capital market logic — and it still applies today.
⸻
7. GEMS vs BUMI – Cashflow Drives Valuation
💎 GEMS.jk: positive cashflow → trades at 3× assets
🪨 BUMI.jk: negative cashflow → trades at 0.5× assets
Same sector, same product — different valuation because of cashflow.
⸻
Closing Thought – Cashflow Builds Trust
🌱 Positive cashflow builds trust. More capital is given, and good things follow — growth, dividends, bonuses.
⚠️ No cashflow breaks trust. Capital gets pulled, rights issues follow, and decline begins.
The company that produces cashflow will be trusted with more.
Cashflow is real
Cashflow is strategy,
Cashflow is King 👑
⸻
Now please sign up for our FREE 3X weekly Sharpfokus Brief emails: click here