bloggingbuyouts

Mark Mobius, one that I consider a seer and leading pioneer among emerging market fund managers, has said he is in talks for private equity investment in Iraq. According to Reuters (and others), he is getting closer to plunking funds down into Iraq.

He said various small manufacturing and food companies that are worth looking at to provide investments. If Mobius invests in Iraq, his investment group will be one of a few companies to invest in Iraq projects since the U.S. invasion. One brave investor, Godvig-Capital Management, has a hedge fund called the Babylon Fund that focuses on Iraq.

Mr. Mobius manages approximately $40 billion in emerging market assets through Templeton Asset Management, a part of Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE: BEN). He is in the process of developing a $300 million fund for emerging markets.

Mobius is the one who has been coined with the term "Invest when there's blood in the streets." Well, that means he sees many opportunities in Iraq.

Jon Ogg is a producer and editor of the Special Situation newsletter and the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter for 247Wallst.com.

Legendary investor (and pessimist) Jeremy Grantham made a bold pronouncement in a Bloomberg article earlier this week. Grantham, who is chairman of Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC, which manages $150 billion, said that as many as half of all hedge funds will be forced out of business in the next few years. The primary cause will be losses in the credit markets.

The main culprit is, of course, credit gone mad in the form of subprime mortgages. Grantham is quoted in the Bloomberg piece as saying, "Probably the most stretched silly credit that ever walked the face of the earth was subprime, and that was the start of it." Subprime inspired a greater appetite for risk and return, and that demand generated a massive bubble in credit markets. When the bubble pops, a lot of investors will get hurt.

Grantham has long been a voice of caution -- and some might say reason. Earlier this year, he argued that virtually all assets are in a bubble right now. In an earlier article on TheStreet.com, he is quoted as saying: "From Indian antiquities to modern Chinese art . . . from land in Panama to Mayfair; from forestry, infrastructure and the junkiest bonds to mundane blue chips; it's bubble time!" The deflation of the bubble will take years, and as a result, only conservative investments make sense right now. Grantham is focusing on "high-quality" U.S. stocks and bonds. He also sees some hope for continued growth in select emerging markets.