Telecommunications companies offer some of the most promising opportunities in emerging markets, according to visiting US expert David Riedel.
Mr Riedel nominates specific telecommunications companies with good fundamentals in markets such as Indonesia and Turkey as promising investments. The qualities that make them good prospects include relatively low market penetration and strong projected growth in the consumer market for their services. Indonesia, for example, has one of the lowest penetrations of mobile handsets among the population in the region despite already having 180 million mobile subscribers. Falling prices are progressively opening up their products to customers further down the income scale, he notes.
However, investors need to understand the local factors that keep these emerging markets in the emerging phase.
“Knowing the risks unique to each of these markets is just as important for investors who are considering investing in these companies as their attractions,’’ Mr Riedel says.
Indonesia has the qualities that make it one of the most promising new markets for investors such as young demographics and a diverse economy, he says. However, the country needs to spend large sums to improve its poor infrastructure, which remains an impediment to growth.
Mr Riedel, who founded the emerging markets research firm Riedel Research in 2003 after a career analysing Asian economies and companies, will outline his investment ideas at van Eyk’s annual conference on Wednesday, March 21.
The conference features presentations from an international line up of speakers as well as the experts at van Eyk, including chief executive Mark Thomas and Head of Research John O’Brien.
Other guest speakers include:
- Dr Jamil Baz, the London-based chief investment strategist at GLG Partners, one of the largest hedge funds globally, will speak on the economic trends sweeping the world and how to translate them into investment strategies.
- Andrew Hunt, UK-based economist at Hunt Economics: Andrew is an expert on the European financial crisis and an economic adviser to hedge funds and central banks worldwide. He has covered a number of financial crises first hand.
- Louis Christopher, head of SQM Research: one of Australia’s most respected property market analysts.
- John Trudgian, managing partner at business intelligence service Williams Inference: the Massachusetts-based Williams Inference specialises in the early identification of social, economic and technological trends. John’s insights into the future will include the revolution underway in the global energy market.
- Simon Ho, director of Triple 3 Partners – an expert on market volatility and how to protect your portfolio.
For more information about van Eyk’s conference on 21 March, please refer to the AdviserVoice event calendar.