Guilherme Ribeiro do Valle, CFA, Founding Partner and Portfolio Manager for ABS Global Investments, joined Julie Cooling, Founder and CEO of RIA Channel, at the 2026 ABS Annual Conference to discuss the firm’s pre-IPO strategy and opportunities across emerging markets.
ABS Global Investments sources alpha (excess return above a market benchmark) opportunities across global equity strategies by partnering with specialized boutique managers and leveraging an extensive global network. Valle explained that the firm has evolved from hedge fund investing in the 1990s to emerging markets, separately managed accounts (SMAs), quantitative strategies, and, more recently, pre-IPO investing.
The firm’s recently launched Pre-IPO and Growth Fund (IPOSX) provides investors with access to late-stage private companies approaching potential liquidity events. Valle notes that the strategy enables investors to access well-known private companies at prices he believes are difficult to find elsewhere, while maintaining a reasonable overall fee structure.
Turning to emerging markets, Valle explains that ABS seeks to build local expertise wherever a country represents more than 2% of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, a widely followed benchmark that tracks large- and mid-cap equity performance across 24 emerging market countries. Through relationships with regulators, market participants, and locally based investment managers, the firm has developed a global network spanning Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Valle notes that emerging markets have recently outperformed domestic markets over certain periods, though past performance does not guarantee future results. He points to consensus analyst estimates, projecting earnings growth of approximately 30% across emerging markets versus approximately 20% in the U.S., as measured by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the S&P 500 Index, respectively, at price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios — a valuation metric comparing a company’s stock price to its earnings per share — of approximately 12–13x for emerging markets versus approximately 20–30x for the U.S. These figures are based on consensus analyst estimates and are subject to change. Actual earnings growth may differ materially from these projections.
While investors can capture the asset class’s market return (beta) through exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Valle argues that the greater value lies in active management, where locally based specialists can generate additional alpha through fundamental security selection rather than market timing.
WEBCAST REPLAY – The Private Growth Revolution: A Guide for Advisors
Join ABS Global Investments as they discuss:
- The opportunity: Why growth companies are staying private longer, what that means for public market investors, and how value creation has shifted to late-stage private markets, including a $5.3 trillion universe of 1,450+ private companies growing at 7x the rate of public peers.
- The case for late-stage growth equity: How targeting Series D+ companies reduces failure risk, shortens the path to liquidity, and positions investors to capture pre-IPO returns before public markets reprice the opportunity.
- Where it fits in a portfolio: How late-stage private equity can complement an existing public equity or alternatives allocation, including a comparison to small/mid-cap growth stocks and traditional private equity structures.
- The Pre-IPO and Growth Fund (IPOSX): A look at ABS’s investment process, sourcing network, and the current portfolio, and how the interval fund structure makes late-stage private investing accessible for RIAs and their clients.
Accepted for 1 CFP / IWI / CFA CE Credit
Disclosures
Emerging markets investments involve greater risks than investments in developed markets, including heightened political, economic, regulatory, currency, and liquidity risks. Valuation metrics and earnings expectations may not be realized and are subject to change. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Investors should carefully consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing. For this and other information about the Fund, please call (877) 499-9990 or download at www.absinv.com. Read the prospectus carefully before investing or sending money.
The Fund is a closed-end interval fund. An investment in the Fund is speculative, involves a high degree of risk, and is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is suitable only for investors who can bear the risks associated with the limited liquidity of the Fund and should be viewed as a long-term investment. The Fund will invest in highly illiquid investments. Although the Fund intends to offer limited quarterly repurchase offers, repurchases are subject to conditions, may be suspended or modified, and may be funded through borrowings or asset sales at unfavorable prices. Investors may lose some or all of their investment. The Fund invests primarily in private, illiquid, and difficult-to-value investments, including private equity (ownership stakes in companies not publicly traded on a stock exchange), venture capital (early- to late-stage investments in high-growth private companies), SPVs (special purpose vehicles, which are separate legal entities used to hold individual investments), and pooled investment vehicles, and generally has limited control and transparency over underlying investments.
Paralel Distributors LLC, Member Firm. Paralel is unaffiliated with ABS Global Investments and the RIA Channel.