Happy new year! At Silk Invest, we are very much looking forward to 2010. Last year was, in many ways, unforgettable for us. It’s the year in which Silk Invest became a reality.
We launched our first 2 equity funds at the end of March. It was rather dark out there in the midst of the ‘crisis’ but we somehow managed to get it started. We are grateful to those who had the courage and the vision to invest and made that possible.
We launched the Silk Road Income fund (fixed income in Africa, MENA and Central Asia) only a few weeks before the credit events in Dubai sent a shockwave through the markets. Timing is always key, but most importantly, It turned out that our investment approach works and that it can deal with such a systematic shock as both our fixed income and equity strategies held up rather well relative to peers and markets.
In 2009 we also had the privilege of welcoming more members to the Silk Invest team. The fine people that joined us are all very talented and knowledgeable about the regions in which we invest, but most importantly, they are all driven by their enthusiasm and the deep conviction that the shift of the world’s economy towards Africa, Asia and the Middle East will continue to offer amazing opportunities. We have a page with our entire team on the website.
Hopefully 2010 will be the year in which more investors will realize that the economic configuration of the world has altered and will continue to change and that they can make place to capture the vast upside that this world has to offer.
Things are moving in the right direction. Most investors already embrace the term BRIC and the same people who coined the acronym are now promoting the N11 concept (Next 11 emerging economies). It’s not too late! Many markets remain very much unexplored. When they move upwards, it tends to happen fast so it is worth having an allocation in anticipation of this.As an example, in Africa alone, out of the 53 countries, only 17 have a stock market!
In the next couple of days, we will send out a special paper on our outlook for 2010 so stay tuned for that. Our Monthly updates for December can be found on our website, I hope you can take the time to read the reports, they cover the markets of our focus in detail.
We will be very much on the road for the next 3 months and we will be travelling to your city so let us know if you would like us to stop by.
Good luck for 2010 and we look forward to keeping you updated.
With kind regards,
The Silk Invest team.
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