Research coverage
A natural product of the Principal’s background as an emerging‐market strategist on Wall Street, independent macro research – focused exclusively on sub-Saharan Africa – forms the core of the Rhombus service offering.
Drawing on a deep knowledge of the region’s individual markets, and the Principal’s pan-African network of personal contacts at policy-maker level, the firm delivers a research product that combines a rigorous, top-down approach with an analysis in granular detail of the sovereign credit picture.
In addition to the conventional metrics, the Rhombus approach attaches considerable importance to assessing the political forces at play in each country. This entails monitoring, on an ongoing basis, the ebb and flow of both traditional party politics and the role of civil society as well as the activities of unconventional actors such as Al Mourabitoun, Ansar Dine and Boko Haram.
Applying this 360o methodology, we have established a 14-year track record of helping portfolio managers create alpha by delivering crucial insights, typically ahead of the Wall Street competition, into both the opportunities and latent risks arising in these frontier markets.
Examples of our timely research calls include:
- Nigeria’s 2016 budget – fraught with implementation risk
- Too early to start counting the chickens (in Zambia)
- The economic shoe is beginning to pinch in Gabon
- Angola reels from shrinking petroleum revenues
- Mozambican bond restructuring simply a matter of time.
- Ghana’s central bank in the political cross-hairs
- A pervasive sense of drift after Buhari’s first 60 days in office
- Looking ahead to Ghana’s 2016 elections
- Zambian bond prices are significantly mispricing risk
- Oil price collapse plants the seeds of Nigeria’s next banking crisis
- Ghana’s power emergency is a microcosm of the system-wide crisis
- Opportunity in the Naira crisis