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.

Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN) has announced the acquisition of a 49% stake in Vietcombank Fund Management. Vietcombank is an investment management firm that has currently focused on private equity investment in Vietnam. The remaining 51% of VCBF will continue to be owned by Vietcombank, the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam.

This almost sounds like a reverse sovereign equity fund investment if you think about it. Franklin Resources operates as Franklin Templeton Investments, and this appears to be its first venture in Vietnam with a local management company. Franklin Templeton said it also intends to partner with Vietcombank in an effort to make Franklin Templeton investment funds available at some point to Vietnamese investors.

As Franklin Templeton manages over $600 billion, this will be a small drop in the bucket for the company regardless of the cost of this venture. But what may ultimately come from this is a pure-play vehicle for Americans to invest in Vietnamese public or private companies. That part may be a ways off, but it will be welcomed as overall ETF's, closed-end funds, and open-end mutual funds offer very few options to invest directly into Vietnam.