Non-Stop From Baku To Europe – A New Silk Road Corridor Emerges
November 21st, 2019
Via Forbes, a look at the middle corridor of the New Silk Road: Just ten years ago, a non-stop freight train from fringes of Asia into the core of Europe may have sounded like an odd twist of historical fiction or even a really dumb idea, but in today’s context – where a new “Silk […]
Read more »New Silk Road Money Is Paving The Old Silk Road
November 10th, 2019
Via The Asia Times, an article on the hurricane of yuan blowing through Central Asia, funding everything from high-rise hotels to thousands of kilometers of highways: There never used to be much to do in Khorgos, a remote and dusty outpost on the China-Kazakh border. As recently as 2011, it was a settlement of a mere […]
Read more »Could Caspian Cooperation Help Solve Turkmenistan’s Economic Problems?
November 10th, 2019
Via Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting, commentary on Turkmenistan: In the last 2-3 years, independent media write regularly about the inflation in Turkmenistan, incessant queues, shortage of basic goods, and strengthened punitive measures against those who are disgruntled. The authorities of the country never comment these statements and still claim Turkmenistan lives in the […]
Read more »Kazakhstan’s ‘Opening Up’ Makes It A Standout Among Frontier Markets
November 10th, 2019
Via Forbes, a look at Kazakhstan: Famous hedge fund manager Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates in Connecticut likes to say that either you’re being paid for earnings or you’re being paid for yield. With earnings growth and yield shrinking in many of the advanced economies (negative in parts of Europe), investors are forced to look […]
Read more »Somalia To Announce Plans For First Oil Licensing Round In December
November 10th, 2019
Via Reuters, a report on Somalia’s plans for first oil licensing round in December: Somalia will announce plans in December for its first ever oil and gas licensing round, its oil minister said on Tuesday, as the frontier market looks to attract new investment after decades of civil strife. At least three mortar bombs were fired last […]
Read more »Rethinking the ‘Africa Play’: Why One Firm Held Back from the Africa Investment Frenzy
November 6th, 2019
Via Next Billion, interesting commentary on why one firm held back from the Africa investment ‘frenzy’: In [northern hemisphere] spring 2019, the investment committee at Blue Haven Initiative’s Ventures team raised a painful question: Did we miss the boat? Running an in-house venture fund, my team had made only one new investment in 2018 (Shortlist). We’d held back […]
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.