Can PDVSA Recover?
August 9th, 2012
Via The Journal of Energy Security, a look at Venezuela’s PDVSA: The Venezuelan oil industry can be pictured as a toothless tiger resting on its haunches before a huge slice of raw meat. The country sits on significant hydrocarbon resources that remain undeveloped due to severe management, technical and financial constraints driven by the application […]
Read more »Who Are Tomorrow’s Consumers?
August 9th, 2012
Via Project Syndicate, a look at the future of consumer markets: Luxury-brand companies’ stock prices plunged in July, after their financial results disappointed investors, owing largely to slower sales in emerging markets, especially in China. Meanwhile, news reports indicate that high-end shopping malls in India and China are increasingly empty. What is going on? Many […]
Read more »NATO, Post-2014 Afghanistan, And The Energy Dimensions of Security
August 8th, 2012
Via The Journal of Energy Security, some thoughts on the direction that Afghanistan’s energy security will take within a NATO context in the future: Afghanistan History is waiting to be made in a post-2014 Afghanistan. As the Alliance’s 2012 Chicago Summit Declaration points out, NATO’s role will soon undertake a historic shift from a combatant […]
Read more »China’s Central Asia Balancing Act: Sino-Turkmen Energy Cooperation
August 8th, 2012
Via The Diplomat, some commentary on how recent Sino-Turkmen energy cooperation gives Beijing greater maneuverability in navigating the treacherous geopolitics of the region: Recently, Beijing played host to senior officials from Turkmenistan to discuss ways to enhance their energy cooperation. The Turkmen-Chinese Cooperation Committee (TCCC) – and its more significant subcommittee on energy – forms […]
Read more »Africa’s Retail Promise
August 8th, 2012
Via The Financial Times, a look at Africa’s retail opportunity: When Taiwo Animashaun, who works at Tastee Fried Chicken in Lagos, needed a new hotplate, she decided to try the plush Ikeja City Mall, which opened in December, instead of her local market. Within minutes of entering Shoprite, the South African supermarket that anchors the […]
Read more »Emerging Markets Vs. Frontier Markets
August 8th, 2012
Courtesy of NASDAQ, a comparison of frontier markets against emerging markets: It is a good exercise to compare and contrast the primary categories of emerging market investing: emerging markets and the sub-category, or maybe more appropriately described sibling: frontier markets. Prior to the emergence of the term emerging markets, In the 1970’s these countries were referred […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.