Last week we introduced you to Gavin Serkin, the editor of Bloomberg’s emerging markets international desk in London. He led Bloomberg’s coverage of the credit and derivatives markets from 2004 to 2008, winning the Society of American Business Editors; Writers’ Best in Business Award and the Society of Professional Journalists’ Deadline Club Award.
Gavin is the author of Frontier: Exploring The Top Ten Emerging Markets of Tomorrow which was published earlier this year by Bloomberg and Wiley. The book documents a six-month journey that he took last year, where he traveled to ten of the world’s fastest-growing countries alongside a veritable who’s who of the emerging markets fund management community.
This is a great read that will appeal to finance wonks and armchair adventurers alike. Imagine if a group of hedge fund managers suddenly decided to quit their jobs and write for the Lonely Planet, and you will have a pretty good idea of how this book is written.
This week we have released Part 2 of our conversation with Gavin. We took a virtual tour of the countries that he visited in Part 1. This time we dive deeper into some of the unifying trends that these markets share. We also discussed some of the countries that were a bit ‘too frontier’ for the book, but are nonetheless worth watching. (Spoiler alert: One of our favorite topics — Iran — was mentioned more than once…)
Enjoy!
Podcast Index:
2:40 – The world tends to focus on Fortune 500 companies investing in emerging markets; however, their global economic clout has been on the decline for some time now. How much influence do countries like China and India now weild in other countries?
6:47 – Are fund managers in US and Europe more restricted in their emerging market exposure in recent years due to increased oversight and regulation?
12: 20 – What were their views on the current level of underinvested in emerging markets? Are fund managers crowded out due to so much money being channeled to so few companies?
15: 21 – What is one trait amongst frontier fund managers that you found they all share?
15:48 – Of all the countries that you visited across the world to write this book, were you ever concerned for your safety? If so, where?
19:25 – Price/earnings ratio in emerging markets are incredibly low right now after capital outlfows over the past few months? Are invesment managers already taking advantage?
23:41 Which country did you not have the opportunity to visit for this book, but could have qualified within the top ten?
25:26 – What is the first step for individuals interested in investing in emerging markets? What do they need to know that may not be readily apparent?
