Archive for July, 2025

Qatari Firms Pour Billions Into Syria’s Postwar Economy

Via Semafor, a report on Qatar’s investment interest in Syria: Qatar’s longtime support for Syria’s rebels is now translating into business deals. The latest is Baladna — the food and beverage firm I helped make famous after scooping their plan to fly cows to Doha during the 2017 embargo — which plans to invest $250 million in […]

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The Salvadoran Beach Town that Became a Bitcoin Testbed

Via BBC, a report on the Salvadoran beach town that became a Bitcoin testbed In 2019, a grassroots crypto project in El Salvador aimed to create the world’s first Bitcoin-based local economy. It inspired national policy, sparked global attention and changed the lives of young locals. Today, in the quiet surf town of El Zonte […]

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Turning Diplomatic Commitments into Mineral Investments in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Via CSIS, commentary on how to turn diplomatic commitments into mineral investments in the DRC: Earlier this year, as hostilities escalated between Rwandan-backed M23 rebels and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), President Félix Tshisekedi proposed granting the United States access to the DRC’s mineral resources in exchange for security support. Following intensive negotiations […]

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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.