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Any thoughts on these and any other good plays? What about African bonds? Looks like they would be highly risky and a good play may be an emerging market bond fund overweight in Africa.
I bought Naspers around the $60's, sold it in the $80's and regret it now at $105. lol.
Naspers is, to me, the most "comfortable" single stock investment in Africa. I think it's richly valued, but what do I know, I thought it was richly valued something like $20 ago.
Naspers is a giant media conglomerate with interests in a number of emerging market social media/e-commerce companies (Tencent being the biggest one.) It's sort of like an emerging markets mix between IAC Interactive and Comcast, with some Fox blended in.
Sasol is another interesting play in Africa and that pays a really nice dividend.
Vodacom (Vodacom is a pan-African mobile telecommunications company, with the largest number of subscribers of cellular networks in South Africa) would be another lower key option that pays a significant div.
I took profits from TRAMX and put it into one of my core domestic funds: PRWCX, another TRP offering. I like TRAMX. Bought it in the summer of 2012. It's been good to me. I think Oliver Bell, the Fund Manager, has a feel for the pulse of things over that way. Nigeria is in that fund, Qatar, etc. The fund has been rising since late in 2011, when he took over.
Large caps are as big a proportion as mid-caps and small-caps combined. M* says there are 7 bond holdings, including these, within the top 25 holdings: -Samba Financial -Saudi Basic Industries -Al Mouwasat Medical Serv. -Yanbu National Petrochem.
Reply to @MaxBialystock: I admire your discipline to reallocate...this is something I have to remind myself each time an investment surprises me with some out performance. PRWCX is a "die and hold" position... adding to it is always a reason for acknowledgement.
Max & Bee, I have been DCA'ing into TRAMX since 2008 when it tanked from $13 down to $5 a share and slowly rising out of the heap. I have at least another 12 years before I retire, so I am going to keep investing and move the profits off to another fund.
Thanks everyone for their comments. For now, I will stay the course and let the good folks at Wasatch Frontier funds decide how much to allocate to Africa.
From an Xray analysis of my portfolio emerging markets currently make up a little less than five percent of my overall portfolio. In review of my three emerging market funds (NEWFX, THDAX & DEMAX) their combined weighting to the Africa/Middle East Region is about five percent. I have been watching the international indexes through the WSJ and year-to-date the Middle East is up good with Egypt leading at 5.3% followed by Israel up 1.5% and South Africa up 0.9%. I have no plans to make a special investment that targets this region ... but, I wish you well with yours.
Reply to @Kaspa: I think that is a smart move. Don't let an article sway you to choose a region as specific as Africa. It has as good a chance to have low returns as high returns. Let a good manager make that decision.
Comments
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discussions-3/#/discussion/6808/africa-on-the-rise
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Naspers is, to me, the most "comfortable" single stock investment in Africa. I think it's richly valued, but what do I know, I thought it was richly valued something like $20 ago.
Naspers is a giant media conglomerate with interests in a number of emerging market social media/e-commerce companies (Tencent being the biggest one.) It's sort of like an emerging markets mix between IAC Interactive and Comcast, with some Fox blended in.
Sasol is another interesting play in Africa and that pays a really nice dividend.
Vodacom (Vodacom is a pan-African mobile telecommunications company, with the largest number of subscribers of cellular networks in South Africa) would be another lower key option that pays a significant div.
Large caps are as big a proportion as mid-caps and small-caps combined.
M* says there are 7 bond holdings, including these, within the top 25 holdings:
-Samba Financial
-Saudi Basic Industries
-Al Mouwasat Medical Serv.
-Yanbu National Petrochem.
Keep up the good work.
From an Xray analysis of my portfolio emerging markets currently make up a little less than five percent of my overall portfolio. In review of my three emerging market funds (NEWFX, THDAX & DEMAX) their combined weighting to the Africa/Middle East Region is about five percent. I have been watching the international indexes through the WSJ and year-to-date the Middle East is up good with Egypt leading at 5.3% followed by Israel up 1.5% and South Africa up 0.9%. I have no plans to make a special investment that targets this region ... but, I wish you well with yours.
Old_Skeet
etfdb.com/mutualfund/TRAMX/