Back on November 13, Investorazzi noted that legendary emerging markets investor Mark Mobius had been spotted in Sri Lanka, possibly looking at further investments in the South Asian island country. The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) followed-up on Mobius’ visit and posted the following on their website on November 15:

A globally recognised investor in emerging markets, during a visit to Sri Lanka this week, said the fund was positive on investing in the equities market here but first would ‘wait and see’ till elections are over, before firm decisions are made.

“We know the various plans (by the government) but we worry about actual implementation of the plan while elections (also) provide a degree of uncertainty. Thus we’ll wait and see,” Dr Mark Mobius, President of Templeton Emerging Markets Fund, Inc told the Sunday Times FT in a telephone interview on Friday just before his team left on a tour of the south to check out hotels and investment prospects in the leisure sector.

This morning, the newswires are reporting Sri Lanka’s president signed a decree Monday calling for early elections, with media reports saying the election will likely be held the third week of January 2010.

The Times article talked about Mobius’ possible investment strategy in Sri Lanka. From the piece:

Templeton recently invested $750 million in rupee-dominated, government bonds offered by the Central Bank. He told the Sunday Times FT that Templeton officials (including himself) have been to Sri Lanka a couple of times and sees a good market here. “The sectors we are looking at are tourism, specialized manufacturing, property development and banking,” he said, adding that liquidity is an issue in a small market (like Colombo) to invest between $50 to 100 million.

“Maybe we could use our private equity fund for these investments,” he added. Dr Mobius, accompanied by a 3-member team, was keen on companies with good fundamentals, sources close to those he met, said. “Essentially Templeton showed interest in investing in companies with a good track record while the leisure sector drew a lot of interest particularly because of the huge potential after the end of the conflict,” one source said.

Source:

“‘Wait and See’ policy by top investment fund”
Sunday Times (Sri Lanka), November 15, 2009

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