Starting out as a classic value investor ala Graham and Buffett, EMQQfounder Kevin Carter had a revelation after the unwinding of the late 1990s tech bubble that emerging markets were going to be at the forefront of the next massive wave of internet growth. As Carter puts it, "You have billions of people just starting to go online, changing their consumer behavior... this is the greatest investing opportunity of our lifetimes." As a result of his revelation, Carter gradually made the shift from traditional value investing to high-octane emerging markets internet growth.
At first he recommended funds like the Columbia Emerging Markets Consumer ETF (ECON) to friends and colleagues believing it to be the best fund available to capture this growth. But then about 7 years ago, Carter had a second revelation: The best fund to capture emerging market internet growth doesn't yet exist. Teaming up with his friend Dr. Burton Malkiel of "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" fame, he decided to form an index committee to create a pure-play index and accompanying ETF, the Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF (EMQQ). The fund launched in 2014, gathering more than $400M in AUM over the past 5-plus years.
Show Notes
1:45 - How did you get started in investing generally and in ETFs specifically?
14:00 - Why the pivot to emerging markets?
25:45 - Changing habits of consumption in emerging markets
27:15 - Why is now the time to invest in emerging market technologies?
35:45 - How do address concerns of EMQQ's being too heavily weighted towards China?
40:30 - Why does EMQQ have an 8% weighting cap, and a limit to US listed companies and ADRs?
44:15 - Digging in EMQQ's holdings: Alibaba (BABA), Tencent (TCEHY), Pinduoduo (PDD), StoneCo (STNE), Yandex (YNDX), Jumia Technologies (JMIA)
54:45 - Future plans for EMQQ
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