GMO's emerging market high-flyers

Bill Nemerever and Tom Cooper, co-managers of GMO's emerging markets debt portfolio, have made their names sourcing cheap debt in unusual locations. Shunning roadshows and local currencies, they barely even travel to the countries they invest in. Dalia Fahmy meets the EM fund managers who are beating the benchmark from their armchairs

Forget everything you know about investing in emerging markets, because at Boston-based investment firm GMO things work a little differently. Bill Nemerever and Tom Cooper, co-founders and co-managers of GMO's $5 billion emerging markets debt portfolio, don't travel to the countries they invest in. They avoid roadshows. They don't trust local currency bonds, even though most fund managers today think local debt is a hot opportunity.

"Roadshows are not very productive," says Cooper, 50. An avid