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Tags: Global Investing

How to Invest in Frontier Markets and Tap the World's Fastest Growth

By David Zeiler, Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler • September 11, 2013

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An axiom of investing is that those who get in on great opportunities early make the most money.

Knowing how to invest in frontier markets gives you one of those great, rare opportunities. And it's early enough in the game that most of the profits are still well off into the future.

Frontier markets are not to be confused with emerging markets, which include such places as China, India, Mexico, and Chile.

Frontier markets are undeveloped countries like Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Croatia, and Ghana, where economic growth has only recently begun to sprout.

While generally more risky than emerging markets, they hold far more potential.

"The frontier markets still remain undiscovered," Jack Ablin, Chief Information Officer at BMO Private Bank, told Yahoo! Finance's Breakout. "I believe the frontier now is where emerging markets were 13 years ago."

Frontier markets may not go unnoticed much longer...

Investing in Frontier Markets: Where to Look

As a group - which includes anywhere from 25 to 36 countries, depending on who you ask - the frontier markets have significantly outperformed emerging markets over the past 12 months.

A comparison of the MSCI Frontier Markets and Emerging Markets Indexes shows that while emerging markets have been volatile, with less than a 1% gain to show for it, frontier markets are up more than 15%.
Frontier markets
This is a reversal of a long-time trend; up until this year, emerging markets consistently outperformed frontier markets.

"Right now frontier is very exciting," Mark Mobius, executive chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group, told CNBC. "These frontier markets, particularly in Africa, are growing at a tremendous pace... this is the place to be at this stage of the game."

Why Now Is the Time to Be Investing in Frontier Markets

 Investing in frontier marketsWhile the idea of frontier markets dates back 20 years, outside money has not been pouring into these countries... yet.

That's because many of these countries carry higher risk as a result of political corruption and violence, and their markets often suffer from a general lack of liquidity.

All those factors tend to scare away investment, but the lack of foreign capital is part of what makes investing in frontier markets now such a big opportunity.

"I particularly like frontier markets because they are not as mainstream as emerging markets and therefore not as sensitive to hot money flows and investor sentiment," Ben Seager-Scott, senior research analyst at Bestinvest, told Investment Week. "When investors go into risk-off mode, they pull money out of EM, but that does not happen in frontier."

The other benefit to the low rate of foreign investment is that it has helped keep stock prices low despite remarkable growth.

Many of these economies are already growing at a healthy clip. Gross domestic product (GDP) in frontier markets averaged 6.9% in 2012 and is forecast to rise to 7.2% this year.

But unlike the case in most emerging markets, that strong growth has not been reflected in frontier market stock prices.

"This has led to unbelievably low valuations for these markets, which are trading at a huge discount to stocks in the Philippines and Indonesia, for example," Thomas Hugger, chief executive officer and fund manager of Hong Kong-based investment firm Asian Frontier Investments, told CNBC.

That just leaves the question of how retail investors can get frontier markets in their portfolios...

Here Are 10 “One-Click” Ways to Earn 10% or Better on Your Money Every Quarter

Appreciation is great, but it’s possible to get even more out of the shares you own. A lot more: you can easily beat inflation and collect regular income to spare. There are no complicated trades to put on, no high-level options clearances necessary. In fact, you can do this with a couple of mouse clicks – passive income redefined. Click here for the report…

Claim My Free Report

David ZeilerDavid Zeiler

About the Author

Browse David's articles |

David Zeiler, Associate Editor for Money Morning at Money Map Press, has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including 18 spent at The Baltimore Sun. He has worked as a writer, editor, and page designer at different times in his career. He's interviewed a number of well-known personalities - ranging from punk rock icon Joey Ramone to Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Over the course of his journalistic career, Dave has covered many diverse subjects. Since arriving at Money Morning in 2011, he has focused primarily on technology. He's an expert on both Apple and cryptocurrencies. He started writing about Apple for The Sun in the mid-1990s, and had an Apple blog on The Sun's web site from 2007-2009. Dave's been writing about Bitcoin since 2011 - long before most people had even heard of it. He even mined it for a short time.

Dave has a BA in English and Mass Communications from Loyola University Maryland.

… Read full bio

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yngso
yngso
10 years ago

Im not young, but absolutely agree that we should invest for the long term. Frontier markets may surprise us on the upside sooner than we think!

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Bilal Khan
Bilal Khan
10 years ago

Within the FM space Pakistan is a consistent out performer! When that market trends is really takes off.

BMA Pakistan Opportunities Fund

0
Reply
Mohammed Adsmu
Mohammed Adsmu
9 years ago

The growth in Nigerian economy is based on crude oil and now that this commodity is being found and drilled in many countries all over the world,is this growth sustainable? What about corruption and poor infrastructure?

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Spencer
Spencer
9 years ago

So, you never answer the question that you pose in the title? Interesting tactic.

0
Reply
David Zeiler
Author
David Zeiler
9 years ago
Reply to  Spencer

While options are limited at this stage, I did provide several ETFs.

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Liam
Liam
9 years ago

Isn't Vietnam extremely corrupt? Officials are always extorting money out of people who open businesses. They even extort money out of overseas Vietnamese visiting Vietnam via airport customs officials.

0
Reply


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