The Emerging Markets Century
Book

The Emerging Markets Century

The New Breed of World Class Companies That Will Overtake the Industrialized World

Antoine van Agtmael
Free Press, 2007
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

In 1981, fund manager Antoine van Agtmael created the term "emerging markets," as opposed to "Third World," to describe developing countries, from Brazil to China. A pioneer in emerging-market investments, he describes the economic revolution being provoked by corporate activities in emerging markets. Van Agtmael enumerates the forces driving this transformation in the economic relationship between developed nations and their emerging-market counterparts. In the second half of the book, he shares his detailed research into the factors that make emerging-market companies notable and successful. He catalogues market details about 25 specific companies he has analyzed for investment purposes, and presents the lessons they can teach Western managers. getAbstract recommends this book to serious investors who want to know about promising non-U.S. companies, and to managers who want to read about their corporations' upcoming competitors – and potential future owners.

Summary

From Rags to Riches

Within the next 50 years, the global economy will undergo a sea change, a fundamental shift between the emerging and developed worlds. This transition will include a rise in the middle class in Third World nations. Economic, demographic and political forces will create a “second Industrial Revolution,” tilting the world economy toward emerging markets. These countries will soon emerge as dominant economic forces with combined gross national products (GNPs) that exceed those of the world's mature economies. A Goldman Sachs study found that the economies of Brazil, Russia, China and India alone will become greater than those of the industrialized G7 countries by 2040. The economies of these countries plus the next 11 major emerging markets, will be larger than the G7 by 2030, with a combined gross national product of $41 trillion.

With this macroeconomic shift, the leadership of the world's largest companies also will change. Some emerging corporations already are becoming global leaders in their sectors. Korea's Samsung spent more than "$5 billion (more than Intel) on R&D in 2005, or 9% of its revenues," and won 1,641 U.S. patents that year, ...

About the Author

Antoine van Agtmael founded and heads an emerging-markets investment firm. He has held senior management positions in international finance and founded the IFC Emerging Markets Index and Data Base. He is the author of Emerging Securities Markets and co-editor of The World's Emerging Stock Markets.

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