Archive for the ‘South Africa’ Category

Africa’s Supermarket Revolution

Via The Economist, a report on Africa’s retail revolution as it plays out in the supermarket sector: To walk along the main road in Ruaka, a town on the outskirts of Nairobi, is to glimpse the extremes of African shopping. Market stalls selling vegetables and charcoal spill onto the street. In the distance is a […]

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Exxaro, Impala, Sibanye… South Africa Goes on a Copper Hunt

Via The Africa Report, an article on South Africa’s copper ambitions: Major players in South Africa are vying for copper mines across the continent, while local producers explore substantial unmined holdings at home. South Africa’s bid to be the continent’s copper giant within the next 10 years is playing out as a two-pronged approach: outbidding […]

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Walmart Goes All In on Africa

Via Wall Street Journal, a report on Walmart boosting its online efforts at Massmart as part of renewed bet on fast-growing consumer markets in Africa: Walmart’s investment in Africa tanked.  It is responding by doubling down.   More than a decade ago, Walmart spent $2.4 billion to buy a controlling stake in South African retailer Massmart, which also […]

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Economic Powerhouses Are Foundering in Sub-Saharan Africa

Courtesy of Bloomberg, a report on how traditional economic leaders in sub-Saharan Africa are now falling behind: Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic powerhouses are faltering. While South Africa has pulled back from the brink of an electricity crisis in recent weeks as the government scrambled to keep the state utility’s creaking plants running, energy shortages continue to […]

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This Club Isn’t Big Enough for Both India and China

Via Bloomberg, commentary that tensions between the Asian rivals will likely prevent the BRICS bloc from ever posing a coherent challenge to the West: For an acronym coined by an investment bank in a decades-old report notable mainly for being wrong, “BRICS” has had a good run. It was once an idea, then a summit, and […]

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BRICS: At Risk Becoming Satellites of China

Courtesy of The Financial Times, commentary on the BRICS’ lopsided turn towards China: There can’t be many international summits where a head of government stays away for fear of being arrested for war crimes, but the BRICS grouping has managed it. Vladimir Putin will skip next month’s meeting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South […]

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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.