Philippines anyone??

srcandas

This is not advice or anything other than observation.

Some time ago I had a chat with a well connected guy in Hong Kong. He has a wife from Indonesia and he got me thinking (he is a legal guy so it was just chat - he is not in the finance industry) about investing there (in Indonesia). An enormous population, internal growth, some stability, ....... So I jumped in and haven't been dissappointed.

I then started looking for other targets and several posts here suggested Viet Nam as the next big thing.

Well my well connected guy was here visiting the UK again and again just chatting he offered that he felt that Viet Nam was high risk due to debt and banking issues. However he felt the Philippines had great potential.

Of course the Philippines is very high risk with political, social and corruption issues but his comments certainly started me researching.

Just wanted to balance the optimism for Viet Nam and see if anyone had any thoughts on the Philipppines as a potential high growth, high risk target, and any views on investment vehicles

innovate

srcandas wrote: »

some stability, .......

apart from earthquakes and tsunamis that will wipe out major parts of the Phillipines. Just a matter of time, but if you can take that risk, you might have a good ride for a while.

srcandas

innovate wrote: »

apart from earthquakes and tsunamis that will wipe out major parts of the Phillipines. Just a matter of time, but if you can take that risk, you might have a good ride for a while.

:rotfl: The islands have been inhabited for 67000 years. And even wet or shaken people need commodities

Sanchsoot49

Ive looked at the Phillipines too.
Recently bought into a fund which has a small percentage there.
Might be worth a dabble for some people.

innovate

you just need to look at a world map in a few hundred thousand years, and you will see that they are no longer there. 67000 years, or 67 million years, is no insurance against the continental drift because it is happening as we speak. And it won't stop.

Seems you have already made the decision that natural disasters will be an acceptable risk for you. That's fine, all part of the risk assessment.

gadgetmind

innovate wrote: »

no insurance against the continental drift because it is happening as we speak.

Crikey, I thought I took a long-term view!

IronWolf

innovate wrote: »

you just need to look at a world map in a few hundred thousand years, and you will see that they are no longer there. 67000 years, or 67 million years, is no insurance against the continental drift because it is happening as we speak. And it won't stop.

I dont think hes gonna be around long enough to worry about that!

srcandas

innovate wrote: »

you just need to look at a world map in a few hundred thousand years

Innovate I'm 61 in August!!! I know they say investing is for the long haul but ...............

Seriously there are of course risks that can be disasterous - be they natural like Tsunamis or manmade like civil war/criminality/bad management. But any balanced portfolio will limit the risks to individual investors.

And the risk to a mixed equity Philippines fund of natural disaster is I would think far less than an individual LSE quoted company
being managed to bankruptcy.

Sanchsoot I am looking at db X-trackers MSCI Philippines IM TRN Index (XPHI). Can you give the fund where you have a little exposure? :beer:

Sanchsoot49

No problem it is this one:-
Smith & Williamson Oriental Growth Acc

innovate

srcandas wrote: »

Innovate I'm 61 in August!!! I know they say investing is for the long haul but ...............

I am only just behind you - agewise. Who knows when Indonesia will be wiped out? This year, next, in 10 years, in 500 years, in a million years? I don't know when, I just know it will be, at some stage.

Your assessment what the risk is, because you are the one considering an investment. As I said before,,,,,,, it looks you have already decided the risk is acceptable to you, and that is a perfectly good position to take.

RetiredInThailand

innovate wrote: »

apart from earthquakes and tsunamis that will wipe out major parts of the Phillipines. Just a matter of time, but if you can take that risk, you might have a good ride for a while.

And there's Japan, the world's third largest economy that's just announced a shed-load of QE that is already driving up share prices. But it's sitting right on the Pacific ring of fire and so is destined to be swallowed up by earthquakes and tsunamis at any moment. I should surely avoid any exposure there.

And at some point half of the Canaries will fall into the sea creating a mega-tsunami that will wipe out much of the eastern seaboard of the US. So I suppose I best not buy any Dow Jones trackers.

But my God it gets worse! There's a black hole at the galactic core and in a few million years we will all be sucked into eternal nothingness. I think I'll sell my FTSE trackers today and buy a paper bag to put over my head.