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Frontier Markets Find Footing

19 March 2014

Frontier markets remain in focus for the Templeton Emerging Markets Group in 2014, and my team and I have spent the early part of the year exploring potential investment opportunities in a number of them. I generally spend about a third of my time in these markets, with Dubai, Eastern Europe and South Africa serving as hubs for access. While the emerging markets we visit today were once considered niches or “exotic” investments when I first started investing in them in the late 1980s, many investors are now familiar with them. Many frontier markets are yet to be fully discovered by the investment community, and we believe they represent the next tier of investment opportunities within the overall emerging-markets universe. Frontier markets are located around the globe, in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central and South America, and Africa. We think there is good potential for frontier economies to forge ahead in their development this year and beyond.

Ethiopia - a rising star with a ripe investment climate that is gaining foreign investors’ attention

18 March 2014

Things are rapidly changing in Ethiopia. This country, situated in the north-eastern part of Africa, is considered one of the most politically and socially stable countries in Africa. Ethiopia is making headways, and becoming a great place to do business. The Ethiopian economy is mainly based on agriculture, which in 2010/11 accounted for about 50% of the gross domestic product (GDP), 90% of foreign currency earnings and 85% of employment. This was highlighted at the Nedbank-NEPAD Business Forum entitled; ‘Ethiopian Investment Forum’, where emphasis was placed on the economic boom the country was experiencing as well as the investment opportunities that existed for the private sector.

Strong European returns unlikely to continue, warns RECM

18 March 2014

The tremendous rerating of European stocks during 2013 meant value investors such as RECM saw big moves in many of their core holdings. As a result they are now having to hunt in more obscure places to find cheap assets, and warn that returns from current levels are likely to be less than spectacular.

Four quick investment lessons

18 March 2014

Given the recent market events, such as the weakening Rand, it is becoming even more vital for investors to understand that their investment portfolios are not only influenced by market movements, but also by their own actions.

quick poll

Question

Do you think short-term insurance broking will survive the AI plus humanoid robotics age?

Answer

Human first always Not a chance Possibly maybe Yes, but reimagined

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