British Empire Trust (British Empire) recently published their June 2017 letter, which is available for download from their website. The company is a closed-end investment trust with shares listed on the London Stock Exchange. It is managed by Asset Value Investors Limited. As per their website, the trust’s investment objective is to achieve the creation […]

A longer than usual reading list this week. Enjoy! Why did all the 7-Elevens in Jakarta suddenly disappear?: Competition, regulations and a sluggish economy created a perfect storm that the convenience-store chain could not withstand. Interview with Nicholas Cator: Verlinvest Asia’s executive director on why India remains a key geography for his firm. In urban China, […]

Kerr Neilson, the CEO & managing director of Platinum Asset Management, recently published an excellent piece titled “Facts, Feelings and the Importance of Composition.” The article is available on the company’s website (link here, highly recommended). Neilson writes about the importance of checking whether your “feelings” are backed by facts when investing. He also ask […]

This week’s readings include a conversation with Japanese economist Eisuke Sakakibara, thoughts on what the MSCI inclusion of China A-shares means for investors, Stephen Roach on the lessons policymakers should learn from Japan’s experience since the early 1990s, an interview with Bob Rodriguez (formerly of FPA) and a look at the history of Air India. […]

Another reflection piece on the lessons learnt from the Asian Financial Crisis, this time from Mohammed El-Erian. He is currently the chief economic adviser at Allianz SE, the parent company of Pimco, where he previously served as CEO and co-CIO. Twenty years ago, however, he was working at the International Monetary Fund in Washington that “would […]

Arisaig Partners recently released their letter for June, which is available for download from their website. Their Asia Consumer Fund is now up 24.8% year to date, broadly in line with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index, which is up 22.8% over the same period. Some highlights below: The portfolio remains heavily weighted towards India (~47%). […]

Hurun Report recently published “The Chinese Luxury Traveller 2017” in association with ILTM Asia. The report looks at the trends that are set to come to the fore in the Chinese luxury travel market in the next three years. The analysis was based on the responses of 334 high-end travellers with average annual travel consumption of […]

Mark Mobius, the executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, recently wrote a short blog post reflecting on some of the lessons learnt from the Asian Financial Crisis. Mobius has spent more than 40 years working in emerging markets all over the world. He joined Franklin Templeton in 1987 as president of the Templeton Emerging Markets […]

This week’s readings include an opinion piece by Robert Shiller, a report on the Southeast Asian palm oil sector, reflections on the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover from Philip Bowring, thoughts on the prospect of a US-China conflict and a look at how Facebook’s growth team got the company to two billion users. […]

In the past two decades, China has gone from being a relatively small investor in Africa to becoming the continent’s largest economic partner. To better understand the breadth and depth of the economic relationship between Africa and China, McKinsey & Co. recently undertook a detailed study that included on-site interviews with more than 100 senior African business […]