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Economics

New Market Entry Solutions

Build the foundation of intelligence that enables successful entry to emerging markets

Companies expanding their activities into new markets need to account for a range of factors that are critical to their success. Whether you are assessing which markets hold the most opportunity or building a strategy specific to the local business environment, having a wholistic view of the target market is critical for long-term success.

At IHS Markit, we take an intelligence-led approach to supporting new market entry by drawing on our leading industry and analytical expertise to provide advisory support to our clients. Our specialists cover 11 industries in unparalleled depth and provide macro and country analysis geared towards identifying risks and opportunities – particularly in emerging markets. Drawing on a strong foundation of intelligence means companies can pursue new opportunities globally with foresight and confidence.

Unparalleled support across the four stages of new market entry

 

Exploratory – Identifying new investment trends in a region and understanding what opportunity they present for your business

  • Risk scoring (and benchmarking for 200+ countries
  • Quantify and compare country risks by sector to accurately benchmark opportunities
  • Identify and compare global business growth opportunities, measure industry performance, and quantify market risk in over 200 countries
  • Compare country-level industrial data across a region
  • Explore the ways in which global political and economic trends will shape opportunities in your industry

 

Pre-entry – Diving deep into a specific market to size the opportunity, your competition, and the risk-to-reward

  • Identify and size and high-potential markets
  • Identify key stakeholders, competitors, and risks in a market
  • Map the macroeconomic and industry development scenarios for your market
  • Convince local stakeholders of your proposed business activities in their market

 

During entry – Vetting your local partners, stakeholders and strategy for the market

  • Create a pricing strategy that captures a specific niche of the market you are entering
  • Vet your proposed local partners, investors, and other stakeholders for operational and reputational risk

 

Post-entry – Identifying new growth opportunities and dealing with unanticipated crises and challenges

  • Examine potential opportunities for your business in new market segments or through expansion into regional markets
  • Improve your relations with local stakeholders and the public by communicating the benefits of your activities to the local market
  • Get to grips with unexpected emergent security, political and economic risks

Case studies

Exploratory

Challenge:

A global commodities producer wanted to understand how to best position the company’s global strategy in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, and in particular to understand the opportunities and risks for the business in its key regions.

Solution:

Our commodities experts, macroeconomists, and regional specialists held several collaborative workshops to build scenarios for the business assessing opportunity and risk in relation to global trends such as increasing trade barriers, regulation, political decoupling and economic recovery from the pandemic.

Pre-entry

Challenge:

An international telecommunications company needed a comprehensive assessment of the economic, social and political trends driving large scale infrastructure projects in Turkey’s mobile market.

Solution:

A multi-disciplinary project team delivered a report and expert-led workshop setting out the full spectrum of commercially relevant risks and drivers that were built into the client’s market entry strategy for the country.

During entry

Challenge:

A technology company intended to form a joint venture with a Nigerian company as part of its entry into the country but was seeking further insight into the company’s operational and reputational track record.

Solution:

Using our network of local industry and government sources in the country, our country specialists undertook in-depth due diligence of the company’s operational activities, discreetly drawing insights directly from the company’s business partners, regulators and employees to provide an assessment of any relevant risks the relationship could pose to our client.

Post-entry

Challenge:

An energy consortium operating in a West African country was engaging with local industry and government stakeholders as part of a bid to expand its operations, and needed insight on how best to present their current activities and plans to position themselves for future work opportunities.

Solution:

We brought together technical energy and economics expertise to model the social and economic impact of the client’s operations to date, and created a presentation and plan for how the consortium could use that data in its engagement with local stakeholders.

Connect with an expert

Karim El Assir

As a member of the Economics & Country Risk consulting team, Mr. Assir is responsible for advising clients on strategies to build and scale business abroad, particularly in emerging markets. He also provides guidance around understanding the political and operating landscape of markets in the Middle East and Africa and assessing and mitigating counterparty risk to support mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. He joined IHS Markit from KPMG, where he led the MENA desk on its Corporate Intelligence team, providing clients with advisory services in the region. These included helping to develop new market entry strategies, gathering on-the-ground intelligence to assess the extent of a company's exposure to a variety of non-financial risks, and managing compliance and reputational crises post-market entry. His previous professional background is in political risk. Prior to joining KPMG, he helped start a political and economic risk consultancy based in Cairo, where he led the firm's research on the political environments of several Middle Eastern states. Mr. Assir has degrees from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and the University College of Maastricht, and has lived and worked in Egypt, Germany, Morocco, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.

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Nathalie Wlodarczyk, Ph.D.

Dr. Wlodarczyk's team is responsible for developing and delivering forward-looking political, industry and economic insight, data and advisory for government and private sector clients to support strategic planning and business growth. Dr. Wlodarczyk has more than 15 years of experience working on both methodology development and assessment delivery for Risk Intelligence, as well as supporting clients in buliding out their own intelligence teams and capabilties. She has supported clients on market entry and risk management for emerging markets for over a decade and has led projects across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. She adds particular expertise in analyzing cultural drivers of behavior and decision-making, in particular for mapping of influence groups and dynamics. Dr. Wlodarczyk has a background working in building capacity for conflict resolution in locations with civil conflict, often in Africa. Formerly she was head of Africa Forecasting for Exclusive Analysis, now part of IHS Markit. She has written several articles and book chapters about the impact of belief and culture on behavior in conflict, and she is the author of the book, "Magic and Warfare: Appearance and reality in contemporary African conflict and beyond," published in the US by Palgrave Macmillian. Dr. Wlodarczyk has taught contemporary security issues at UK universities, including the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and King's College London (KCL). Dr. Wlodarczyk attained her Ph.D. in War Studies at KCL, and she holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in International Relations from London School of Economics (LSE), United Kingdom.

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Natznet Tesfay

Her areas of specialization include analysis of political developments affecting the offshore energy sector in West Africa, particularly Nigeria; commercial developments, especially in mining, energy, and infrastructure in East Africa; and piracy risks in the Gulf of Aden and Gulf of Guinea. Ms. Tesfay leads the development of the Africa risk indicator and horizon scanning infrastructure, drawing on a range of methodologies such as geospatial analysis and scenario modelling techniques. She supports business growth across the continent, advising C-level executives on market entry, stakeholder engagement and risk management, and African governments on leveraging their natural resource potential for sustained economic growth. In 2017, Ms. Tesfay was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She regularly speaks in major media outlets and at high-level conferences. Previously, at Exclusive Analysis she managed the Africa intelligence team of in-country analysts and sources, as well as Exclusive Analysis's Johannesburg office. She also advised municipal governments on sustainably developing megacities and national governments on the development of free trade zones, foreign policy and the mining sector in East Africa. Ms. Tesfay's degrees include a BA in Government from Harvard University and a MSc in Urbanization and Development from the London School of Economics.

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Carlos Cardenas

Mr. Cardenas, Director of Latin America Country Risk Analysis and Forecasting, is responsible for the generation of commercially relevant political and violent risks forecasts for a variety of sectors in Latin America, including energy, manufacturing, mining and insurance. He manages a team of Latin American experts, as well as a remote network of contributors based in the region, covering risks such as expropriation, non-payment, contract frustration, civil unrest, business disruption and security-related risks (extortion, kidnapping, crime and terrorism). Mr. Cardenas has also worked and delivered numerous consulting projects for a variety of clients interested in understanding the role of stakeholders and risks at the project level in Latin America. His areas of expertise include petroleum policy and economics, public governance in natural resource rich countries, international relations, criminal dynamics in Latin America and political economy. He holds a BA in International Studies from Universidad Central de Venezuela (Magna Cum-Laude), an MA in International Political Economy from Birmingham University (distinction) and an LLM in Petroleum Law and Policy (distinction) from Dundee University.

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Deepa Kumar

Ms. Kumar leads political, operational and security risk analysis for multiple Asia-Pacific countries, primarily India, Myanmar and Nepal, as an analyst for the IHS Markit Country Risk team, having previously also covered Indonesia and Malaysia. Her areas of expertise include electoral politics, stakeholder analysis and assessing changing regulatory dynamics in emerging economies. Previously, she was an entrepreneur in New Delhi focused on promoting participatory policymaking by facilitating dialogue between members of parliament and citizens in India. Ms. Kumar holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. She also holds a First-Class Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, with minors in English literature and Economics from the St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. She is fluent in English and four Indian languages including Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and Gujarati, and a beginner in Arabic.

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Anton Alifandi

Mr. Alifandi is responsible for political risk analysis on Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Timor-Leste. He rejoined the country risk team at IHS Markit in August 2019 after two years heading the ASEAN team at Financial Times Confidential Research. He had a 20-year career in journalism beginning his career at the Jakarta Post in Indonesia before moving to the BBC in London. He has also worked as a political risk analyst in Singapore. Mr. Alifandi graduated from London School of Economics with a degree in Political Science (MSc) and Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (BA); He is fluent in English and Indonesian.

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Rafael Amiel, Ph.D.

Dr. Amiel is a director in the Economics and Country Risk Group for Global Insight at IHS Markit. He brings 20 years of international experience in macroeconomic and sovereign risk analysis of Latin America gained over a long career tracking economic developments and business cycles of the region with a focus on risks for medium- and long-term investment. He coordinates the group's analysis and forecasts and is responsible for reporting on Peru, Mexico, and Brazil. As a sovereign risk expert, he closely monitors and tracks repayment capacity of Latin American economies, assessing both short- and long-term risks. Prior to joining IHS Markit, he served as the country risk manager for Hamilton Bank. Previously, he was a research associate at the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida, US.Dr. Amiel earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Universidad de Lima in Peru. He completed his Master of Arts in Business and Economics at the State University of New York - Stony Brook, and went on to attain his doctoral degree in economics at FIU, where he served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Economics.

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Firas Modad

Mr. Modad focuses on the conflict between Turkey, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia and how it shapes security and political risks in the region and terrorism risks in the West. He has also studied the rise of Islamist militant and non-militant groups, their ideology, their capabilities and their communication strategies. Currently, he is focused on the risk of another wave of unrest in MENA, the migrant flows it would trigger and its impact on terrorism. Mr. Modad has briefed executives and directors in insurance the insurance and energy sectors, as well as C-level executives at blue chip firms with interests and operations in MENA. He has helped clients understand the rise of the Islamic State, the conflicts in Libya, Syria and Iraq, risks in Egypt and the conflict between Israel, Iran and the Arabs. Mr. Modad also makes regular appearances on the media, and has been interviewed by Reuters, Bloomberg, the BBC, CNN, ABC News, and others. Mr. Modad holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, and a Master of Science in International Management for the Middle East and North Africa from the University of London in the United Kingdom.

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Thea Fourie

Ms. Fourie is also responsible for analyzing, forecasting and reporting on economic developments in the Southern Africa region (South Africa, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia among other countries). Previously she was a financial economist at ING Barings, specializing in macro and financial economic analysis of the South Africa economy and was also the head econometrician at ABSA Bank. She earned a bachelor's degree in Econometrics (Honors) from the University of Pretoria. Her expertise includes sovereign risk analysis, econometric modelling and analyzing key developments within the Sub-Saharan African region and reporting through report writing and presentations. Ms. Fourie is fluent in English and Afrikaans.

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Alex Kokcharov

Mr. Kokcharov is responsible for country risk analysis of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia and Tajikistan. He provides in-depth political and security risk analysis including producing regular publication of risk forecasts and analysis, advisory briefings, and tailored reports. He has over fifteen years of experience in data-driven business and political journalism and country risk analysis. He has particular expertise on Russian and Ukrainian political, business and energy developments. He has lived in Belarus, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Russia, Germany and the UK. Mr. Kokcharov speaks English, Russian, German and Belarusian fluently, has a working knowledge of Ukrainian and speaks basic Polish. He has a Masters in Geography and Economics from Belaruski Dziarzhauny Universitet in Minsk and studied for a PhD in Human Geography at the University of Oxford.

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