Archive for June, 2019

Regional Rivalries Over Sri Lanka’s Ports

Via East Asia Forum, a look at how foreign investments in Sri Lanka are made within the tapestry of regional and global power rivalries: When it comes to Sri Lanka’s national security and sovereignty, nothing seems more guaranteed to generate heated discussion than the spectre of foreign involvement in seaport developments. After years of wrangling, […]

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Ethiopia Plans To Issue Telco Licenses By Year-End

Via Reuters, a report on Ethiopia’s plan to open up its telecom sector: Ethiopia is aiming to award telco licenses to multinational mobile companies by the end of the year, ending a state monopoly and opening up one of the world’s last major closed telecoms markets, three people with direct knowledge of the process said. […]

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The Collapse Of Venezuela And Its Oil Industry

Via Forbes, an article on the destruction of PDVSA, Venezuela’s national oil company: How could Venezuela, the country with the largest oil resources in the planet — which received the largest commodity windfall in Latin America’s history and had the highest income per-capita in the region — end up with the worst economic depression, hyperinflation, […]

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Gwadar vs. Chabahar: Competing Ports in Iran and Pakistan Fuel Ambition and Mistrust

Courtesy of STATFOR (subscription required), a detailed look at Gwadar and Chabahar: China’s expansion across South Asia and the Indian Ocean under its Belt and Road Initiative will drive India’s own regional outreach, heightening the importance of New Delhi’s infrastructure projects such as the Chabahar port in Iran. However, the threat of U.S. sanctions and […]

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Indonesia: After Infrastructure

Via The Economist, a report on Indonesia’s economy: Victoria Opai, a teacher in a remote part of West Kalimantan, Indonesia’s slice of Borneo, is charmed by the new road connecting her school to Putussibau, the nearest town. It is smooth, reasonably straight and cuts through swathes of jungle. It used to take three hours to […]

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Nigeria’s Economic Woes

Courtesy of The Economist, a look at Nigeria’s economic woes: Long Lines of lorries stretch like tentacles from Apapa port, the largest in Nigeria. Drivers doze in their cabs, feet flung over dashboards; some sling hammocks beneath the chassis. Musa Ibrahim, an ebullient trader, says he has been queuing for two days. He gestures at […]

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ABOUT
WILDCATS AND BLACK SHEEP
Wildcats & Black Sheep is a personal interest blog dedicated to the identification and evaluation of maverick investment opportunities arising in frontier - and, what some may consider to be, “rogue” or “black sheep” - markets around the world.

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.