Episode summary
Nick Rohatyn – Emerging Markets Multi-Asset Investing at TRG (EP.482)
Capital Allocators with Ted Seides
· · Hosts: Ted Seides · Guests: Nick Rohatyn
Summary
Nick Rohatyn argues that emerging markets are badly served by the standard developed-market playbook: single-asset-class funds, regional silos, and benchmark-driven allocations that ignore currencies and market structure. He says the better approach is horizontal and multi-asset, because emerging markets move through very different country cycles and the right exposure can change between equities, local currency debt, and hard currency debt.
He traces that worldview to his path at JP Morgan, where he moved from capital markets in London to Japan, then into emerging markets just as Brady bonds and broader EM capital markets were taking off. That experience, he says, taught him that opportunity lies where others are not looking, and that a firm needs both flexibility and scale to survive volatile cycles.
At TRG, he has built that model through acquisitions, using them to add capabilities, LP relationships, and geographic reach. He says diversification across asset class, region, style, and even fundraising method is what kept the business alive through crisis periods, while currency capability and scenario analysis are essential risk tools in EM. His current focus is on creating a true one-stop, long-only multi-asset EM platform, especially as he sees US exceptionalism fading and investor interest in emerging markets rising.
Key takeaways
- Rohatyn says benchmark-based EM investing often hides concentration and currency risk, especially in equity and local-currency debt indices.
- He believes the best EM process is horizontal across equities, local currency debt, and hard currency debt, with country cycle analysis driving the allocation.
- He argues that diversification is a survival tool in EM: monoline managers with one region or one asset class are vulnerable to violent cycles.
- Rohatyn says scale matters after crises, which is why TRG grew through acquisitions rather than purely organically.
- He sees renewed investor attention on emerging markets as US exceptionalism fades and capital becomes less concentrated in the United States.
Notable quotes
“It's either private equity or it's private credit or it's infrastructure. Many of them are regional or subregional and that is a terrible way to invest in emerging markets”
“opportunity lies where other people aren't”
“One is you can't ignore the world and two is you can't ignore what's going on in a given country”
“the only way I was going to be able to do what I love to do the most was to build it from scratch, to dedicate it to emerging markets from scratch”
How the episode opens
This issue of single asset class stuff, it really prevails. Let's take a look at it through a private market lens as a way of example. The world has imposed a developed market private investing construct on emerging markets, which is to say the vast majority of investment vehicles in emerging markets are mono asset class.
It's either private equity or it's private credit or it's infrastructure. Many of them are regional or subregional and that is a terrible way to invest in emerging markets. It is a terrible way because the deal flow in emerging markets will not support monoasset class single country subregional funds and therefore the people who raise that money end up deploying it badly.
Layer into that a 15-year bare market on currencies, you end up with a fragmented market full of failing GPS and two small funds competing with the US leveraged private equity industry. So, forget it. I'm Ted Sides and this is Capital Allocators.
My guest on today's show is Nick Rowitin, the CEO of the Rowitin Group, a global emerging markets and real assets investment firm he founded in 2002 that manages $7 billion across public and private markets. Nick previously spent two decades leading JP Morgan's emerging markets business across multiple cycles and served on the bank's executive committee. He also served as the founding chair of the emerging market traders association and later as chair of the emerging markets private equity association.
Nick's worldview is also shaped by his international family history of doing well while doing good. His grandfather Clarence Street was a longtime New York Times foreign correspondent and his father Felix Rowitin was one of the most influential financiers of his generation. Our conversation traces Nick's path from his international upbringing to capital markets innovation at JP Morgan and the founding of TRG.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- emerging markets multi-asset
- currency management
- benchmark problems
- diversification across cycles
- acquisitions and scale
Companies and tickers mentioned
- JPM
- The Rohatyn Group
- JPMorgan
- JP Morgan
Watch the episode
Watch “Nick Rohatyn – Emerging Markets Multi-Asset Investing at TRG (EP.482)” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
More from Capital Allocators with Ted Seides
-
Aydin Senkut: Chasing Demand, Not Hype, at Felicis -
Scott Ramsower: Continuation Vehicles from the LP Seat -
Vik Uppal: Real Estate Special Situations With a Flexible Mandate -
Zack McGuire: Dynamic Allocation and Concentrated Conviction at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta -
Ben Harrison: AI Tools for the Investment Firm -
Tracy Britt Cool: The Berkshire Model for $5–50M Businesses
Capital Allocators with Ted Seides, this episode and its artwork belong to Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
