Mongolia’s Khan Bank – Exciting frontier market exposure via Japan

For this month’s focus piece, we travel away from the Middle East to another exciting frontier market being boosted by China’s rise – Mongolia. The country’s breakneck economic growth has been largely fueled by commodities since the 90’s. The country has vast copper and gold reserves, and the mining sector is still at a nascent stage. China imports the lion’s share of these commodities as it seeks to feed its industries – particularly electric vehicle manufacturing. As with every frontier market, this young democracy is not immune to political and economic risks. However, we have identified a rare opportunity to gain access to this relatively closed stock market through the majority Japanese-owned and highly profitable Khan Bank, which dominates the local banking sector with USD 4.3 billion in assets and a 78% market share.