About this episode
What if emerging markets aren’t a trap, but most investors just approach them wrong?
In this episode, I sit down with Robert Koenigsberger, Founder and CIO of Gramercy, to explore how he has built a $7 billion emerging markets platform by focusing on high conviction, structured private credit, and long-term partnerships. After nearly four decades in emerging markets, Robert has pioneered strategies that capture the upside while managing risk, proving that careful underwriting, local knowledge, and disciplined execution outperform passive index approaches.
Highlights:
Why emerging markets are often misunderstood and mishandled by passive, late-cycle investors
How index investing can mislead with forced exposure to high-risk countries like Argentina or Russia
The importance of “high conviction” and planning multiple entry and exit points to avoid reactive trades
Why structured private credit to suppliers of major companies (e.g., Pemex) can yield 16–17% with collateral
How to manage currency risk opportunistically and avoid unnecessary volatility
Why underwriting people and credit culture is often more important than laws, contracts, or jurisdictions
How Gramercy partners with LPs who already have EM exposure to optimize returns, not convince them to take new risks
The evolution from distressed hedge fund to public credit to private credit to capture structural alpha
How local teams and platform partners in emerging markets provide actionable information that beats what’s visible in global markets
Timeless advice: seek mentorship early and often to accelerate learning and avoid repeating mistakes
Guest Bio:
Robert Koenigsberger is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Gramercy, a $7 billion firm focused on emerging markets across debt, private credit, and special situations. Since founding Gramercy in 1998, he has led the firm through multiple market cycles, combining top-down macro insights with bottom-up local expertise to pursue high-conviction, structured opportunities while managing downside risk.
Our Podcast now receives more than 300,000 downloads a month. Are you interested in sponsoring an episode? Please email David Weisburd at david@weisburdcapital.com.
We’d like to thank AlphaSense for sponsoring this episode!
Sponsor:
AlphaSense is the AI-powered market intelligence platform trusted by 85% of the S&P 100, helping investment professionals make faster, more confident, data-driven decisions. Built for hedge funds, asset allocators, private venture capital firms, and investment bankers, AlphaSense uses advanced AI and powerful search across premium proprietary content to surface the insights that matter most—before the market moves. Elevate your research and stay ahead of the competition. Visit
