African Investment: Driven by Terrain?
July 21st, 2008
Via Stratfor (subscription required), an excellent analysis of how the rugged terrain of Sub-Saharan Africa prevents industrialization and modern infrastructure from taking hold and engenders chronic political instability. As a result, the article notes, most foreign investment goes to resource extraction, especially offshore projects protected from the disruptions that are rife on land: “…Foreign direct […]
Read more »Dialing for Dollars (or Dirhams?): Gulf Arab Telcos Expanding Their Area Codes
January 21st, 2008
Two recent reports on Gulf Arab telecom operators continuing their expansionist trends out of their home markets, where most have been riding a wave of economic growth spurred by a five-fold increase in oil prices since 2002. First, an article detailing Saudi Telecom’s – the largest Arab telecom firm by market value – $2.6 billion […]
Read more »China: Banking on Africa
October 31st, 2007
A few interesting articles, courtesy of Bloomberg and The Financial Times, detailing two recent Chinese investments into the African banking sector, namely Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.’s move to buy 20 percent of Standard Bank Group Ltd. (Africa’s largest bank) and China Development Bank’s partnership with United Bank for Africa, one of Nigeria’s […]
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.