Greetings from Penang! We were attending a friend’s wedding in George Town over the weekend. It was our first trip back to Malaysia since we moved from KL to Singapore during the pandemic and we had a wonderful time. Apart from the wedding festivities and all the delicious food, a personal highlight was a visit […]

Reading/content links include the Pangolin Asia Fund’s May newsletter, United Tractors’ investment in and strategic collaboration with Nickel Industries, Parallaxes Capital’s Saish Setty on investing in tax receivable agreements, Hedgeye’s conversation with Mark Gordon on the great energy transition and Jon Dye on the lessons inherited from a value investor. Pangolin Asia Fund: May 2023 […]

Readings/content links include the Asia Foundation’s podcast with Scott MacMillan on his recent book which traces the evolution of the development organisation BRAC, Jens Nordvig’s brief history of dollar hatred, the World Gold Council on recent trends in central bank demand, Marcelo Lopez’s conversation with Jim Grant and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Steven Tian and Kyle Bass […]

When I was a student in college, I wanted to be a development economist. My initial inspiration came from learning about BRAC’s rural development programs in Bangladesh in the 1970s/80s and I went on to write my senior thesis investigating mission drift in microfinance institutions. Unfortunately, I wasn’t smart enough to do a PhD in […]

Apologies for the radio silence, it has been a rather hectic month with the start of preschool for my son, some overseas travel and then the whole family coming down with Covid. Things are now thankfully on the mend. On a separate note, I can’t believe we are almost halfway through the year already. Time […]

Readings/content links include Upstream Online on the growing risk of secondary sanctions for Kazakhstan, a Q&A with the portfolio managers of FSSA’s China Growth strategy, Peter Tasker assesses Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda’s 10-year tenure, insights from Platinum’s recent visit to Vietnam and Bloomberg on Zimbabwe’s reported plan to introduce a gold-backed digital currency. Upstream […]

Readings/content links include an interview with Peter Spiller (manager of the Capital Gearing Trust), Peter Tasker’s book review of Edward Chancellor’s “The Price of Time,” potential regulatory challenges for nuclear power in the US, Doug Saunders on the Vietnamese climate trap and Merryn Somerset Webb’s conversation with Duncan MacInnes. Macro Hive: Peter Spiller on value […]

Readings/content links include Jonathan Ruffer’s Q1 investment review, Russell Napier on financial repression and funding a green revolution, Nikkei Asia on Warren Buffett’s intention to add to his investments in Japan, Ben Nelson on the future of higher education and CGTN Europe’s conversation with Tim Clissold. Jonathan Ruffer: Q1 2023 investment review. Citywire: Financial repression […]

Readings/content links include an American journalist’s TSMC visit, John Hempton on AT1 bonds, a conversation with Hugh Dyus from the Navis Jockey Fund, Greg Miller on how the push to decarbonize shipping slowed tanker building to a trickle and IC’s interview with Joel Greenblatt. Wired: I saw the face of god in a semiconductor factory. […]

Readings/content links include Jokowi’s call to abandon foreign payment networks like MasterCard and Visa, Hosking Partners’ capital cycle analysis of the copper industry, Platinum Asset Management on energy transition opportunities, CNA’s interview with James Morton and Partners Capital & SMU on the Asia opportunity set. Asia News Network: Jokowi wants local governments to ditch Visa, […]