<p data-pasted="true"><strong>At Christ Church, Oxford, delegates explored what makes private capital effective in emerging markets. One message defined the day: supplying capital is only the beginning. Productive investment also depends on local knowledge, disciplined structures and institutions capable of connecting capital with opportunity.</strong></p><p>On September 8, Gemcorp Capital welcomed the next generation of emerging-market asset owners to Christ Church for its inaugural Private Markets Symposium. The setting was academic, but the discussion remained grounded in the practical decisions facing investors: how to assess risk, how to structure capital and how to build portfolios that meet their obligations while having wider economic and societal benefits.</p><p>The programme covered the foundations of private equity, private credit and infrastructure, moving into trade finance, insurance and the perspectives of a development finance institution, a sovereign wealth fund and a pension fund.</p><p>Marc Kitten, Founding Partner of Candesic Strategy Consultants and Visiting Professor in Finance at ImperialCollege London, provided the connecting thread through the morning sessions. He set the wider context on the growth of private markets as well as providing introductions to private equity, private credit and infrastructure, allowing each asset class to be considered both on its own terms and through an emerging-market lens.</p><p>Professor Sir Paul Collier closed the day by asking how African investment institutions can help local firms grow. Viewed together, the sessions amounted to something bigger than a tour of asset classes. They described the components of a well-functioning investment ecosystem.</p>