Author Archive

China: Doubling Down On The Digital Silk Road

Via Reconnecting Asia, an article on China’s efforts to build the digital Silk Road: Summary: While the core focus of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is on traditional infrastructure deployments, it is evident that the Digital Silk Road is a key part of the overall BRI strategy, and China will leverage technology to increase […]

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Non-Stop From Baku To Europe – A New Silk Road Corridor Emerges

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 […]

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New Silk Road Money Is Paving The Old Silk Road

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 […]

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Could Caspian Cooperation Help Solve Turkmenistan’s Economic Problems?

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 […]

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Kazakhstan’s ‘Opening Up’ Makes It A Standout Among Frontier Markets

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 […]

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Somalia To Announce Plans For First Oil Licensing Round In December

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 […]

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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.