With nerves of steel and a cool head, mutual-fund manager Mark Mobius travels the globe in search of good, undiscovered companies in risky, emerging markets. In Passport to Profits, he takes you on a enlightening international tour, from Estonia to Russia to Nigeria. He shows you how he's established a winning long-term record at Franklin Templeton funds, up an average 20 percent a year between 1987 and 1997. "I'd toured rubber plantations in Thailand and road-tested bikes over the pothole-ridden roads of rural China. I'd choked on roasted camel's meat, sheep's eyeball, guinea pig and dined (surprisingly well) on scorpions on toast," Mobius writes, "all to find undervalued companies before other investors do. I think you could safely say that I'm driven."Like his mentor, the famed Sir John Templeton, Mobius believes in buying stock at the peak of pessimism and believes that the economic turmoil overseas in the late 1990s may signal an opportunity. The author lays out more than 80 rules for investing in developing nations and provides plenty of examples of how he picked winners like Shanghai Dazhong Taxi Co., Ltd. and was burned by Cukurova, a Turkish utility, and other losers. Passport to Profits is a valuable and easy-to-read tour for investors interested in the world's up-and-coming economies.--Dan Ring
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
With nerves of steel and a cool head, mutual-fund manager Mark Mobius travels the globe in search of good, undiscovered companies in risky, emerging markets. In Passport to Profits, he takes you on a enlightening international tour, from Estonia to Russia to Nigeria. He shows you how he's established a winning long-term record at Franklin Templeton funds, up an average 20 percent a year between 1987 and 1997. "I'd toured rubber plantations in Thailand and road-tested bikes over the pothole-ridden roads of rural China. I'd choked on roasted camel's meat, sheep's eyeball, guinea pig and dined (surprisingly well) on scorpions on toast," Mobius writes, "all to find undervalued companies before other investors do. I think you could safely say that I'm driven."
Like his mentor, the famed Sir John Templeton, Mobius believes in buying stock at the peak of pessimism and believes that the economic turmoil overseas in the late 1990s may signal an opportunity. The author lays out more than 80 rules for investing in developing nations and provides plenty of examples of how he picked winners like Shanghai Dazhong Taxi Co., Ltd. and was burned by Cukurova, a Turkish utility, and other losers. Passport to Profits is a valuable and easy-to-read tour for investors interested in the world's up-and-coming economies. --Dan Ring --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
How is one to describe a book that recommends on one page that investors in emerging markets subscribe to a slate of newsletters that cost up to $10,000 per year each, while claiming on another page that investors need only a good map? Perhaps as a brilliant mess. Mobius is recognized as a talented investor whose Templeton Funds enjoyed a 20% annual gain from 1987 to 1997, but this book is sloppy. If it reads like a collage of rough notes, however, that rawness may give readers a better idea of how Mobius thinks than a cooler, more polished work would have. Whether speculating in high-risk emerging markets or picking moderate-risk domestic mutual funds, investors can learn much from him, but more about attitude than specifics. Mobius is intuitive, not systematic as he takes readers on his never-ending tour of those corners of the world just settled enough to invest in but still chaotic enough to offer exceptional opportunities (e.g., Vladivostok, Brasilia, Lagos). Like a hard-boiled noir hero, Mobius has optimism without illusion and empathy without softness. He dissects tragedy with clarity and a world-weary shrug; describes foolishness with cool detachment; and evaluates high-risk opportunities with a gambler's wary eye. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Let Mark Mobius tell you himself.,
By -oo0(GoldTrader)0oo- (Honolulu) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Passport to Profits: Why the Next Investment Windfalls Will Be Found Abroad and How to Grab Your Share (Audio Cassette)
Really some good stuff here. Investing has long periods of boredom punctuated by brief periods of shear terror. The purpose a book like this fills for investors is that it enables us to sit tight and hold on for the ride. Mark gives us incite into what the navigator is actually doing. Long term planning pays. You can hear an excerpt and an interview with Mark Mobius right now by searching on Author "Mobius" at his publishers web site If you are not familiar with books on tape, having your books read by the author is the preferred way to go. These are absolutely the greatest when you are driving and your eyes are in constant motion, the world around you is dynamically flowing. Your mind is free to feast & absorb. It is so easy to leave Mark in your machine on auto repeat. Hardcover is companion to Global Bargain Hunting by Burton Gordon Malkiel
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A window into the mind of a unique personality...,
By aseclyst (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Passport to Profits: Why the Next Investment Windfalls Will Be Found Abroad and How to Grab Your Share (Hardcover)
I don't know how many people there are on earth with Mark Mobius's lifestyle, but there can't be many who both have his background and are also willing to share his insights like he does in this book. With no traditional family life to speak of, Mobius presents a picture of himself continually jetting from continent to continent, with no place to lay his head but the cot on his private jet or whatever business hotel he happens to be staying in.Let me mention a couple of things that this book is not. It is not a guide to every emerging market in existence describing the pros and cons of each. Mobius selects several countries as examples (Brazil, Thailand, Russia, Estonia, South Africa, Nigeria) and then drills down to specific companies for flavor. This book is also not an economic theory-type text, where the author might present empirical reasons why emerging markets can make good investments by marshalling statistics. Obviously, if Mobius did not believe that emerging markets can make good investments, he would not have spent his career in this area, but a lot of the theoretical aspects of emerging markets remain unspoken. The format of the book feels something like an all-day seminar by Mobius on the promises and pitfalls of his kind of investing, sprinkled with quirky humor here and there, along the lines of "denial is not just a river in Egypt..." (har, har har). It is as if you have been given the role of a junior analyst to tag along with him to company meetings all over the world, with him giving you his "lessons learned" in the rides back to the airport. In terms of specific investment ideas, Mobius appears to love low (normalized) PEs, especially in the 4x to 7x range, particularly when competitors sell at multiples from 11x to over 20x. He also likes companies selling at a discount to book value. Then there is all of the "softer" stuff, such as quality of management, which is of paramount importance. In particular, his comments in this area spur me to greater due diligence in straining to learn more about the backgrounds of company managements in faraway places. If I can't learn anything positive about them, it might be better to stay away. Particularly due to his long tenure in Hong Kong, I was surprised that Mobius did not spill more ink in his book focusing on China. One takeaway I have from his review of the world is how under whelmed he is by the idea of investing in China. His outlook is completely global, and any potential investment in China must be weighted and sifted against anywhere else. China might have a great future, but at what multiple to earnings? If you want some musings and anecdotes from a person with a real track record in international investing (as opposed to an ivory-tower viewpoint on how things ought to be) this book is for you.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Earning your information,
By A Customer
This review is from: Passport to Profits: Why the Next Investment Windfalls Will Be Found Abroad and How to Grab Your Share (Hardcover)
Yes, there is good historical and anecdotal information on emerging markets here, but you only get it by suffering through an irritating barrage of mixed metaphors and strained folksiness. Being personally familiar with some of the markets and happenings described, I found the actual information to be accurate enough, its just too bad there are a minimum of two cliches in every sentence.
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