Frontier: Exploring the Top Ten Emerging Markets of Tomorrow

"Frontier is part travelogue, part investment research on one of the hottest topics in finance at the moment: frontier markets, countries far off the beaten track of most money managers. Gavin Serkin is an adept guide to these fascinating, recondite corners of world, ably assisted by a slew of prominent investors – including Mark Mobius, a pioneer of emerging market investment. Investors unfamiliar with the new stars of the developing world will find this book an invaluable introduction."
Robin Wigglesworth, Financial Times, Deputy Head of FastFT & former Capital Markets Correspondent

"I love it! Great job! It gives the reader real insights into how these markets behave and, more importantly, how fund managers like us cope. Beautiful descriptive writing."
Dr. Mark Mobius, Executive Chairman, Templeton Emerging Markets Group

"Gavin Serkin′s book is a unique combination of expert journalistic insight and knowledge gained from continent to continent, using his gifted inner compass to tell a compelling, muscular, engaging and humorous story. Powerful narratives, eye–witness accounts and captivating tales, masterly woven, paint a beautiful portrait – albeit with some dark alleys – of hope among emerging frontier markets where returns are high and irresistible for discerning investors.
"The book provides the indispensable guidance investors are seeking to understand the complex texture of doing business in a rapidly changing landscape. It could not have arrived at a better time."
Aliko Dangote, Africa′s Wealthiest Person, Dangote Group President & Chief Executive

"Frontier brings together some of the best known names in emerging markets to portray what is truly happening on the ground in the newest and most exciting investment destinations. Gavin Serkin′s unique approach makes his book incredibly useful, with a compendium of ideas on how to build a portfolio. Better still, the reader absorbs the information while enjoying a compelling travelogue of little charted territories."
Ivan Ritossa, Chairman of Exotix, Barclays Investment Bank former Head of LatAm, Central and Eastern Europe, Mideast & Africa

"This is essential reading for investors exploring investment frontiers. Gavin Serkin unpacks the good, the bad and the ugly behind the numbers, painting a realistic picture of the challenges and the potential."
Caroline Lambert, Center for Global Development Visiting Fellow, The Economist′s former Bureau Chief in Johannesburg & Author of ′Oil to Cash′

"Gavin Serkin is a journalist well known to veterans of emerging markets. His book is an eclectic rollercoaster presenting a diversity of frontier market experiences from the ground up. It contains fascinating insights into how a cross–section of investors think and perceive risks and opportunities."
Dr. Jerome Booth, Chairman of New Sparta & Co–Founder of Ashmore, Author of ′Emerging Markets in an Upside Down World: Challenging Perceptions in Asset Allocation & Investment′

About the Author

Disclaimer

Prologue

Introduction to Frontier
Mark Mobius

Chapter 1: Kenya

I – Mamboz

II – Can t Believe You re Going to Kenya

III – Sleeping Serpent

IV – Prowling Leopard

V – Clinker

Chapter 2: Myanmar

I – Halcyon Days

II – Uncle

III – Yoma

IV – Son

V – Gaung Baung

VI – Monk of Mandalay

Chapter 3: Romania

I – Ro–man–ee–a!

II – Systematization

III – Brown Envelopes

IV – Mega Mall

V – Drac–u–la

VI – Crossroads

Chapter 4: Argentina

I – Arbolitos

II – Del Fin Del Mundo

III – Vaca Meurta

IV – Adelante

Chapter 5: Vietnam

I – Confucius

II – Aristotle

III – Panacea

IV – Equitization

V – Automaton

VI – From Noodles

Chapter 6: Nigeria

I – Eko Beach

II – Crude Politics

III – Sugar King

Chapter 7: Egypt

I – Revolution II

II – Cleopatra

III – Sahl Hasheesh

IV – Audacity of Hope

V – Zahma!

Chapter 8: Saudi Arabia

I – Virtue and Vice

II – Socialist Monarchy

III – Desert Farming

IV – Opening Bell

V – White Balloons

Chapter 9: Sri Lanka

I – Family Economy

II – China City

III – Pawn

IV – Kilinochchi

V – Rising Sun

Chapter 10: Ghana

I – Goatanomics

II – Highlife and Death

III – Gold Diggers

IV – Cassava King

V – Egg and Stone

Conclusion: Journey s End

Acknowledgements

GAVIN SERKIN is the Emerging Markets Editor–at–Large, working with reporters and editors worldwide. He joined Bloomberg in 2000 as Europe′s investing reporter, before specializing in emerging markets in 2001. Serkin was previously the Editor of Portfolio International and the News Editor for a group of nine weekly newspapers in London and Southeast England.