Investing In Thailand

[LaoPo]

Found this in my email today:

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“Both Thai Fund (TTF) and Thai Capital Fund (TF), two closed-end funds, still trade near net-asset value. Yet the underlying shares are widely considered cheap. Thailand has some of Asia's worst returns this year as investors shunned political risk. It's lagged the regional benchmark by nearly a fifth over the past 12 months.

Today, shares trade at just nine times earnings, the yield gap is 5%, and it's yielding about 4.3%. Falling oil prices will help -- Merrill Lynch figures every $5 a barrel decline in the price of oil adds 0.45 percentage point to GDP growth. And the Thai central bank, which has closely followed the Fed in boosting rates, is poised to ease. Greg Stanek of Clay Finlay is a fan: He has 5% of his emerging markets portfolios tied up in Thai shares like Bangkok Bank,

Italian-Thai Development, and Amata, citing ‘cheap’ valuations. ‘This is positive. We're hopeful the democratic process is upheld.’”

-BusinessWeek

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Promising news?

LaoPo

[OldAsiaHand]

People who already own large SET positions want you to buy, too, and their 'cheap valuations' pitch is so old that it's drawing a pension. Methinks the play here is to go short Greg Stanek of Clay Finlay. If he's got 5% of his emerging port in the SET, he's headed for oblivion.