Investing in Iraq: Perception vs. Reality

The Expert View ·
Featuring Geoffrey Batt

Published on: November 25th, 2020 • Duration: 52 minutes

Iraq is not a place that immediately comes to mind when thinking of attractive investment opportunities. Despite decades of geopolitical turbulence, investors have long eyed frontier markets like Iraq for high-growth value investments. Geoffrey Batt, Managing Member of Euphrates Advisors, invests exclusively in Iraqi companies – from consumer-packaged goods and banks to telecommunications firms and e-commerce. For over a decade, he has invested in the Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) and has been able to identify companies with long term capital appreciation. He sees a transformation currently taking place with Iraq's younger generation and the widespread adoption of fintech companies throughout the country. Filmed November 23, 2020. Key Learnings: Batt explains his investment philosophy in searching for economies with potential historic equity re-ratings. He notes that that the greatest opportunities in any market, asset class and investment are those in which there’s a very wide gap between perception and reality.