Investing in the rise of time-poor consumers in the Philippines
Central to Arisaig’s investment thesis is that dominant consumer businesses that can compound earnings in a steady manner over the very long-term are great long-term investments for allocators looking to capture emerging Asia’s rise. These businesses sell everyday essentials to billions of people and, given consumption levels are a fraction that of developed markets, there […]
The ‘Indian Dream’
It is an incredible privilege as investors to be able to travel in emerging Asia and witness the positive change on the ground. This is especially true in India where Arisaig have been investing since the late 1990s. As we try to make sense of the world around us, one idea that strikes us is […]
Climate change – The importance of disclosure in emerging markets
When we joined as founding members of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative in 2020, we had already been measuring and reporting GHG metrics for our portfolios for a few years. However, we had been very much reliant on using third-party estimates. As of 2020, only 13% of our portfolio companies were disclosing scope 1 […]
Consumers in China – down but not out
Our research team made two visits to China in the last month, visiting Shenzhen, Changsha (Hunan province), Hefei (Anhui province), and Shanghai. The recurring message we heard from companies we met during our trip is that, whilst the streets are buzzing and traffic is back, consumer sentiment remains weak. Consumers are consuming but, less than […]
Youth unemployment: is China really lying flat?
China’s unemployment rate for young people aged 16 to 24 hit record levels every month from April until June this year when it reached 21.3%, after which the government stopped publishing age-related unemployment data. A scholar from Peking University recently suggested this figure may even be underestimated as it does not account for the 16 […]
Food security in Emerging Markets: risk and reward
This article was first published in the Partner Content section of the Financial Times (FT.com). Developing countries account for three quarters of the world’s population, are disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, already account for two thirds of global emissions, yet receive a small fraction of annual investment in climate transition. This represents a chronic misallocation […]
Igniting India’s SMEs
This article was first published in the Partner Content section of the Financial Times (FT.com). Is it fair to describe certain markets as ‘Emerging’ when they are not in any way converging with developed world living standards? Over the last decade, while China continued to power towards middle income status, many of the countries in the ‘Emerging […]
Where future growth lies, and why
This article was first published in the Partner Content section of the Financial Times (FT.com). 2023 was, of course, supposed to be the year that promised that a recovery in China and a buoyant India, facing off against a stuttering US (complete with weakening dollar) and inflation-ravaged Europe, would finally bring the ‘lost decade’ of emerging markets […]
IndiaMart: Digital development done right
Intuitively, digitalisation is a game-changer for catalysing accelerated, equitable development in emerging markets. And in numerous countries so far, digital versions of basic services have already proven critical for empowering entrepreneurs and consumers. Mobile money accounts are perhaps the classic example, with digitalisation enabling a sea change in availability of financial services. With near-zero marginal […]
Our impact measurement and management framework in practice: Bioceres Crop Solutions
In a previous Insights piece, we described recent updates to our impact measurement and management (IMM) framework. Here we illustrate some of those using the case study of Bioceres. Bioceres Crop Solutions (“Bioceres”) develops solutions to enhance crop productivity while mitigating adverse environmental impacts of farming. Products include biological agricultural inputs such as inoculants, which use […]
