EM Fund Stock Picks & Country Commentaries (February 28, 2026)

As with pushing AI and private equity, I have noticed fund managers talking more and more about or rather doing research pieces trying to unload push private credit garbage on investors. This piece on ZeroHedge has some great infographics explaining how private credit works and risks for investors:

💻 When the Blue Owl Roosts Before the Credit Reckoning… (by The Macro Butler via ZeroHedge) February 2026 🗃️

However, the bears over at ZeroHedge are increasingly skeptical about private credit over the past week:

💻 Could Private Credit Topple the Global Financial System? (Dohmen Capital Research via ZeroHedge) February 2026 🗃️

• Last week, we explained in our article on ZeroHedge, “The Cracks In Private Credit Are Now Visible,” [🗃️] the reason behind the constant hard promotions by Wall Street of private credit stocks over the past 6 months was that they needed buyers for the garbage they hold.

• For those who may not clearly understand how the private credit sector could be the signaling a crisis on the horizon, which is currently infecting the broader markets, below is our overview.

• Over the past few years, a number of firms jumped into the “private credit” sector and large investors loaded up with this sub-prime credit.

• In our May 2025 Wellington Letter we wrote about how private credit funds were booming and how they were going to be marketed to the public. We warned our members at the time, “We have a big warning for investors: Private Credit is illiquid.”

• We warned in our Wellington Letter at the time that these private creditors “very dangerous and could topple the global financial system.”

• Smart Family Offices were already making significant shifts away from private equity and into listed public stocks. That of course reduced the LIQUIDITY of private credit even further.

Again, there are literally 10,000s of stocks/bonds etc to invest in outside of the USA/Western Europe that are not involved in private credit like some of the following stocks:

As of the start of March, more January fund updates (our continuously updated post containing all funds is here) along with new research have become available starting with a non-EM piece:

• 🔬🌐 Beyond Cockroaches and Canaries: A Clearer View of Private Credit (TCW) – When the bankruptcies of First Brands and Tricolor hit the headlines in late 2025, a lot of people jumped to negative conclusions about what this meant for private credit. Were these the proverbial cockroaches – the first visible hints of something ugly lurking under the floorboards? Could these be the canaries in the coal mine, warning of a much bigger problem? In our opinion, those situations weren’t representative private credit deals. However, the instinct to look closer is the right one. These events reveal something we’ve been worried about and written about for several years – an erosion in underwriting discipline that has been masked by an unusually forgiving economic environment. This paper lays out how we think about these headline events, what they do (and don’t) tell us about the health of private credit portfolios, and why the next few years will likely separate disciplined lenders from those who simply rode the beta trade and aggressively deployed capital in an incredibly benign credit market.

• 🔬🌎 Why direct engagement makes a difference (Aberdeen Investments) – Direct engagement can reveal insights that aren’t always visible from afar. Here’s how meeting Asia’s smaller companies directly can add valuable perspective.

• 🗄️🌎 Henderson Far East Income Limited (LON: HFEL)’s January monthly factsheet (detailed economic and portfolio – in the top corner + under documents) discussed or mentioned:

  • 📈🇰🇷🅿️ Samsung Electronics (KRX: 005930 / 005935 / LON: BC94 / FRA: SSUN / OTCMKTS: SSNLF) 🇼 🏷️

  • 📈🇰🇷🅿️ Hyundai Motor (KRX: 005380 / FRA: HYU / OTCMKTS: HYMTF) – Multinational automotive manufacturer. 🇼 🏷️

  • 📉🇰🇷 SK Hynix (KRX: 000660) – Manufactures, distributes & sells semiconductor products in Korea, China, Asia, USA & Europe. DRAM, NAND storage products, SSD, MCP & CMOS image sensors for server, networking, mobile, PC, consumer & auto applications. 🇼 🏷️

  • 📉🇹🇼 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) (NYSE: TSM) 🇼 🏷️

  • 🏧🇹🇭🏛️ PTT Exploration & Production PCL (BKK: PTTEP / PTTEP-R / SGX: TPED / OTCMKTS: PEXNY) – Petroleum exploration, development & production, renewable energy, new forms of energy & advanced technology. 🇼 🏷️

  • 🏧🇬🇧 Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RIO)