CEO letter to investors

<div class="grid grid--33-66-col"><div class="col"><img loading="lazy" src="/getContentAsset/ffd04928-de25-4a08-8838-813d648c1747/cb87803a-320c-480f-ab75-7b9029eaaf79/atanas-article.jpg?language=en" alt="Atanas - author for articles" title="Atanas - author for articles" style="width: 180px" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-fil"><br></div><span style="font-size: 12px"><div class="col"><strong>Atanas Bostandjiev<br></strong>FOUNDER &amp; CEO<br><br><p>Atanas Bostandjiev is the Founder and CEO of Gemcorp, where he is responsible for the overall management of the firm and serves as a member of the Investment Committee. Prior to founding Gemcorp in 2014, Atanas was CEO of VTB Capital UK. Before that, he was a Partner at Goldman Sachs in London, where he co-led the Emerging Markets business across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He began his career at Merrill Lynch in Frankfurt in 1998. Atanas holds a BSc degree from Washington College, Maryland. In addition to his professional work, Atanas is the founder of the Bulgarian charity, Chance for the Children of Bulgaria, which supports talented young individuals across the country in fulfilling their full potential.</p></div></span></div><hr><p><strong>THIS MARKETING MATERIAL IS INTENDED FOR PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS ONLY</strong></p><p><br></p><p>Dear Investors,</p><p>We founded Gemcorp just over a decade ago with a simple, but at the time unfashionable, belief: that some of the most compelling risk-adjusted investment opportunities in the world exist not where capital is most abundant, but where it is most scarce.</p><p>In 2025, that belief was tested again – and, in our view, further validated.</p><p>It was not an easy year for global investors. Markets were shaped by policy fragmentation, geopolitical uncertainty, increasing concentration risk in public equities, and late-cycle dynamics across developed market credit. In many private credit segments, yield compression accelerated while protections weakened.</p><p>Against that backdrop, we did what we have always done: we built.</p><p>We expanded into the UAE, partnering with sovereign capital to seed a Pan-African Infrastructure strategy. We launched new regulated vehicles to broaden investor access. We deepened our presence across Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. And we continued to deploy capital into markets where we see structural value supported by tangible assets and disciplined underwriting.</p><p>2025 was not about chasing momentum. It was about staying patient, being present and remaining disciplined when consensus thinking became complacent.</p><p>As we enter 2026, we believe the environment for emerging market private credit is shifting in important ways. This is not because emerging markets have become easier but because the structural limitations of overcrowded developed markets are becoming increasingly evident.</p><p>The question sophisticated allocators now ask us is no longer “why emerging markets?” but “how and where should we allocate?”</p><p>For long-term investors seeking diversification, resilient income, and differentiated exposure, the answer is becoming harder to ignore.</p><p>This letter reflects on the year behind us, the principles that guide us, and why we believe the coming decade may mark a turning point in how global capital approaches emerging market private credit.</p><p><br></p><h2 style="font-size: 2rem">Performance and portfolio discipline</h2><p>Our flagship strategy, Fund I, has delivered consistent risk-adjusted performance since its inception in October 2014:</p><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Positive monthly performance: 77%+</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Zero down years&nbsp;</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Annualised net return (net of all fees): 10.51%</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Sharpe ratio: 1.11</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Annualised volatility: 7.55%</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Zero structural leverage at fund level</li></ul><p>Performance in 2025 was driven by a diversified portfolio of bespoke, self-originated direct lending facilities, including a longstanding equipment revolving credit facility, a new sovereign-linked transaction and a specialised East European industrial position.</p><p>We do not pursue engineered returns. We pursue structured, asset-backed cashflows negotiated in environments where capital remains scarce and discipline retains value.</p><p>Importantly, 2025 was also the strongest year for emerging market equity and bond inflows since 2009. While public market flows can be cyclical, we believe they reflect a broader re-engagement by global allocators with emerging economies that are structurally undercapitalised yet demographically and economically dynamic.</p><p><br></p><h2 style="font-size: 2rem">Why we exist</h2><p>Gemcorp was founded to solve a structural problem: how to translate developed market capital into well-structured, enforceable instruments that can finance growth across capital-scarce economies.</p><p>In many of the markets in which we invest, populations are young and entrepreneurial, yet local banking systems lack the deposit base and balance sheet capacity to provide long-term financing. Infrastructure, logistics, energy and industrial projects simply cannot be built without external capital.</p><p>Capital scarcity creates two realities:</p><ol><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Essential investments go unfunded without external participation.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Lenders who structure properly retain pricing power and protections.</li></ol><p>Our role is to bridge that gap responsibly. When capital is deployed into a water treatment facility, renewable power generation, or export-linked industrial asset in a capital-scarce environment, the economic and social multiplier can be transformational.</p><p>Impact, in our experience, is the outcome of disciplined underwriting rather than a separate agenda.</p><p><br></p><h2 style="font-size: 2rem">Our investment principles</h2><p>Over time, we have summarised our approach through three principles: being <strong>contrarian, patient and present</strong></p><h3>Being contrarian</h3><p>Being contrarian does not mean being reckless. It means questioning consensus assumptions.</p><p>For much of the past decade, emerging markets have been treated as a homogeneous risk category. Meanwhile, capital has crowded into developed market private credit, compressing spreads, softening documentation and increasing leverage.</p><p>Risk is often misunderstood:</p><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Overstated where information is imperfect</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Underestimated where capital is abundant</li></ul><p>In capital-scarce markets:</p><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Pricing remains rational</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">&nbsp;Covenants matter</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Collateral is negotiated</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Structures are enforceable</li></ul><p>Risk is still present. But it is different, and often mispriced.</p><h3>Being patient</h3><p>Emerging market private credit is not transactional. Many of our relationships have been built over decades and across multiple cycles. In Angola, for example, engagements that began prior to Gemcorp’s founding have matured into billions deployed across healthcare, energy and infrastructure.</p><p>Patience does not mean passivity. It means:</p><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Intervening early</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Maintaining dialogue</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Preserving optionality</li></ul><p>Capital protection compounds when relationships compound.</p><h3>Being present</h3><p>Emerging markets cannot be analysed from afar. Each jurisdiction has distinct legal frameworks, political realities and cultural nuances. Presence is not an overhead; it is a risk-management tool.</p><p>Through our Imbono operating platform, we maintain more than 500 professionals who provide operational oversight across our investments – monitoring collateral, verifying receivables, managing logistics and intervening early when required.&nbsp;</p><p>When issues arise, we do not rely on quarterly reporting: we are on the ground and ready to act.</p><p>Presence protects capital.</p><p><br></p><h2 style="font-size: 2rem">Platform expansion in 2025</h2><p>Since inception, we have deployed approximately $9 billion across emerging markets spanning infrastructure, commodities and private credit.</p><p>In 2025, we continued to build our platform. Some of the key highlights are as follows:</p><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">We established Abu Dhabi as a strategic hub linking Gulf capital with African opportunity.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">In partnership with the Fundo Soberano de Angola (FSDEA), we announced a Pan-African Infrastructure strategy.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">We launched Kassai, a locally regulated asset manager in Angola to deepen domestic capital markets.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">In the United States, we introduced the Gemcorp Commodities Alternative Products Fund – the first commodities-based interval fund of its type – broadening access to asset-backed credit strategies.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">We developed the plans to launch the Gemcorp Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Inward Investment Fund, to offer global investors access to a market where demand for flexible capital, regulatory changes and the Vision 2030 initiative are creating compelling opportunities.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">We signed the Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Declaration, reflecting our belief that financing essential infrastructure is inherently aligned with long-term sustainability.</li></ul><p>These developments represent institutional validation of a model built on integration between capital and execution.</p><p><br></p><h2 style="font-size: 2rem">Hard truths that strengthen us</h2><p>We do not view investing through a promotional lens.</p><p>Over the years, we have reinforced several convictions:</p><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem"><strong>Collateral must be enforceable and stress tested.</strong> We model liquidation scenarios and extended holding periods in illiquid markets.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem"><strong>Documentation is as important as yield.</strong> Sole-lender positions, maintenance covenants, amortisation triggers and step-in rights are standard in our structures.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem"><strong>Governance is non-negotiable.</strong> Board representation, independent audits and reporting cadence are embedded from inception.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem"><strong>Reputation compounds.</strong> Selectivity enhances sourcing quality.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem"><strong>Culture requires intention.</strong> Institutional memory and emerging market fluency are competitive advantages we protect carefully.</li></ul><p>Discipline compounds over time.</p><p><br></p><h2 style="font-size: 2rem">Why 2026 may mark a structural inflection point</h2><p>Developed market private credit has matured rapidly. With that maturity:</p><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Yield premiums have narrowed materially</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">PIK income and selective defaults have increased</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Concentration risk among the largest managers is rising</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Competition for identical sponsor-backed deals has intensified</li></ul><p>Emerging market private credit, by contrast, continues to offer:</p><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Capital scarcity</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Lower leverage</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Hard-currency assets</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Structural lender protections</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Exposure to different economic cycles</li></ul><p>Historical data supports this distinction. Recovery rates in emerging markets have remained high relative to developed market stressed credit, driven by structured collateral frameworks.</p><p>Macro dynamics reinforce the case:</p><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Deglobalisation and supply-chain realignment</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Infrastructure deficits across Africa and parts of Asia</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Demographic growth</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem">Increasing recognition of fiat currency debasement</li></ul><p>Africa alone requires over $100 billion annually in additional infrastructure investment.</p><p>Emerging market private credit should be viewed as a structural allocation rather than a short-term trade.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><h2 style="font-size: 2rem">Priorities for 2026</h2><p>In the coming year, we will remain focused on:</p><p><strong>Investment performance</strong><br>Our first priority is always to deliver exceptional performance for our clients, while maintaining our rigorous approach to risk management.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Capital formation</strong><br>Scaling with aligned institutional partners, including a first close for our Pan-African Infrastructure strategy.</p><p><strong>Platform and culture</strong><br>Investing in people, systems and governance to preserve our identity as we grow.</p><p><strong>Education and transparency</strong><br>Continuing to challenge misconceptions around emerging market risk through structured dialogue with allocators and consultants.</p><p>As familiarity increases, receptivity follows.</p><p><br></p><h2 style="font-size: 2rem">In closing</h2><p>Emerging market private credit is not for everyone. It requires patience, proximity and comfort with complexity.</p><p>But in a world where capital is increasingly concentrated in the same markets and structures, true diversification requires exposure to different economies, cashflow drivers and demographic realities.</p><p>The global private credit industry was built on providing what traditional lenders could not. As developed markets saturate, differentiation erodes. Investors now face a choice: allocate more capital to managers competing for the same assets or to markets where capital scarcity preserves structural advantages.</p><p>We believe the coming decade will reward those who look beyond geography as a proxy for risk and focus instead on structure, discipline and alignment.</p><p>Our founding principles will not change. We remain grateful for the trust our investors place in us, and we approach that responsibility with humility and conviction.</p><p>Sincerely,</p><p><strong>Atanas Bostandjiev</strong><br>Founder &amp; CEO<br>Gemcorp<br>&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Important Information:</strong></p><p style="font-size: 12px">This content has been prepared solely for informational purposes by Gemcorp (as defined below), is confidential and may not be reproduced.</p><p style="font-size: 12px">This content does not constitute an offer or solicitation of an offer with respect to the purchase or sale of any security and should not be relied upon when evaluating the merits of investing in any securities or form the basis of an investment decision. The information in this content has been obtained from various third-party sources, some of them forward-looking statements and/or projections. 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