Race to the Frontier

From The Financial Times, an interesting article noting that, while investor appetite for emerging markets is dwindling as worries about rising inflation and falling equity markets grow – particularly in China and India – frontier markets such as Africa and the Middle East remain quite popular.  As the report notes:

“…African markets are not immune to the doldrums in global stock markets but have not performed as badly as emerging markets such as India and China,” says John Mackie, head of Africa funds at Stanlib Asset Management.

Emerging market equity outflows reached nearly $22bn (£11bn, €14bn) in the year to date to mid-July, and those in June alone topped $9bn, according to EPFR Global, a Boston-based company that tracks international fund flows.

In the same period, inflows into Africa regional equity funds have totalled $247m, while China equity funds have seen outflows of nearly $4bn, despite inflows in the past week. India has also seen investors withdraw $1bn from funds.

….investors are looking see good opportunities in Morocco, where political risk is low, and Zambia, which has been boosted by several initial public offerings recently.   Some also see good value in Egypt and Nigeria after a recent flurry of profit-taking.  Mr. Green likes Tanzania, where he sees tourism and good economic policy fueling growth….”



This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 10:54 am and is filed under Egypt, Nigeria.  You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.  Both comments and pings are currently closed. 

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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.