Diversification Benefits of Frontier Markets
February 8th, 2008
As reported by The International Herald Tribune, “frontier” markets are gaining even more interest than before in light of the recent turmoil in more developed markets. As the article notes, what has started to come home to investors is that frontier markets, which are remarkably diverse, have achieved these good returns with low correlation to […]
Read more »Argentina’s Energy Find
February 5th, 2008
From The Financial Times, news that Pan American Energy – the second largest oil and gas producer in Argentina – has announced the country’s biggest hydrocarbons discovery in recent years and a $1bn investment programme – music to the ears of a government grappling with serious energy and power shortages resulting from President Cristina Fernández […]
Read more »Dinosaurs at the Tar Pit: Big Oil as Road Kill on The Hydrocarbon Highway?
February 5th, 2008
From The Times (UK), more news on the decline of Big Oil in favour of government-controlled national oil companies in big producer countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and Venezuela. The share of the world’s oil reserves controlled by the big Western oil companies, such as BP, Shell and ExxonMobil, has fallen to less […]
Read more »The Iron Silk Road (2): China Railroads Central Asia
February 3rd, 2008
As we have discussed earlier in this forum, China is attempting to draw Central Asia into its orbit by developing extensive energy links with the region’s nations but, as noted here earlier & reinforced by a recent Stratfor analysis, it now attempting to capture the whole of Central Asian economic life. As the analysis notes: […]
Read more »Calling Dear Leader: Orascom’s North Korean Mobile Licence
February 3rd, 2008
As reported in Arabian Business, Orascom Telecom – the fourth-biggest Arab mobile phone operator by market value – announced that its subsidiary, CHEO Technology (in which the North Korean government also owns 25%), won the first mobile phone licence in North Korea. Orascom stated that it plans to invest $400 million on infrastructure and licence […]
Read more »The Second World: Key Players in the Geopolitical Marketplace
January 28th, 2008
An excellent piece in yesterday’s New York Times magazine effectively argues that the US’s position in the global order of things is changing and, that in addition to the three powers in today’s world (i.e. the U.S., China and the European Union), a set of “second world†nations that are part developed & part developing […]
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.