12th Sep 2007 07:01
Charlemagne Capital Limited12 September 2007 12 September 2007 Charlemagne Capital to launch Magna Africa Fund sterling share class Charlemagne Capital ("Charlemagne"), the specialist emerging markets group, ispleased to announce that its Magna Africa Fund ("the Fund") will issue sterlingdenominated B Class Shares from 24 September 2007 in response to demand from UKretail investors. The B Shares, which will also have distributor status, give UKretail investors the opportunity to buy shares in Charlemagne's daily dealingAfrica focused fund in a tax-efficient manner for the first time. The B Shareswill stand alongside existing share classes denominated in euros and US dollars. The Fund was launched on 23 March 2007, with assets under management growing toUS$120 million by 31 August 2007. The Fund aims to achieve capital growth byinvesting in a diversified portfolio of African securities across a variety ofmarkets. The Fund was one of the first daily dealing funds in Africa and ismanaged using Charlemagne's disciplined bottom-up investment process, exploitingmarket inefficiencies to select undervalued companies. The Fund is free toinvest in any company and country in Africa. The Fund invests across the continent and its core holdings are currentlyfocused on South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria. The majority of the Fund's holdingsare in South Africa, as this is where most stock opportunities lie. However, theSouth African exposure is usually underweight with respect to the Fund'sbenchmark (MSCI South Africa, Egypt and Morocco Indices, capitalisationweighted) as the Fund also has significant off-benchmark holdings in suchcountries as Mozambique and Uganda. Charlemagne does not see Africa just as a commodity or raw materials story andalthough it does invest in some mining companies, Charlemagne's preference isfor smaller companies moving towards production where valuations are moreattractive. The increasing economic maturity of the region and expanding middleclass demonstrates growing consumer participation. The Fund taps into this trendthrough, for example, its holdings of Nigerian Banks and Egyptian Real Estate.To date, such investments have proved to be particularly profitable. The netasset value of the Fund increased 9.3% from launch to 31 August 2007, whilst itsbenchmark rose just 1.4% over the same period. Jayne Sutcliffe, CEO of Charlemagne, commented: "We are delighted with the performance of the Magna Africa Fund since its launchand the B Shares represent an excellent opportunity for retail investors whowant to participate in what is a very exciting region. We believe the Fund willcontinue to generate good returns and outperform the market." The Fund is a sub-fund of the Magna Umbrella Fund plc which is an open endedinvestment company. As at 3 September 2007, the Magna range had total assetsunder management of US$1,347 billion. The Magna range aims to deliveroutperformance of the relevant benchmark index for each sub-fund via activemanagement. Enquiries Charlemagne Capital 020 7518 2100Varda Lotan / Christopher Fitzwilliam-Lay Smithfield Consultants 020 7360 4900John Kiely / George Hudson / Tom Hardman Notes to Editors Charlemagne Capital is a specialist emerging markets group. Charlemagne CapitalLimited was admitted to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange on 4 April2006. Charlemagne's product range comprises mutual funds, hedge funds andinstitutional and specialist fund products primarily covering GEMs, EasternEurope, Latin America and Asia. Charlemagne employs a range of investmentstrategies including: long only, long/short, structured products and privateequity. Charlemagne's funds aim to exploit the inefficiencies in the market viaa strict bottom up approach and focused stock selection. The Magna Umbrella Fund plc is a daily dealing UCITS fund, consisting of ninegeographically focused sub-funds. The OCCO fund range is Charlemagne Capital'shedge fund range, employing a long/short equity strategy to produce consistentabsolute & risk adjusted performance by exploiting inefficiencies in themarkets. The funds have a maximum standard deviation target of 12% p.a. Through the strong long-term investment performance track record of itsprincipal funds, Charlemagne Capital has established itself as a market leaderin emerging markets investment management. Its performance has been recognisedthrough numerous awards and top rankings for its funds, including: the 2005Standard and Poor's 5-year best performing fund award in Austria; the 2006 SwissLipper Leaders 5-year award winner for Emerging Markets Europe; a AA-rating byStandard & Poor's for its Magna Eastern European Fund (a sub-fund of MagnaUmbrella Fund Plc); and it was ranked number one in the LatAm universe in theStandard & Poor's Cash Funds Awards 2007 (Switzerland). This announcement is not for publication or distribution to persons in theUnited States of America, its territories or possessions or to any US person(within the meaning of Regulation S of the US Securities Act of 1933, asamended). Neither this announcement nor any copy of it may be taken ortransmitted into Australia, Canada or Japan or to Canadian persons or to anysecurities analyst or other person in any of those jurisdictions. Any failure tocomply with this restriction may constitute a violation of United States,Australian, Canadian or Japanese securities law. The distribution of thisannouncement in other jurisdictions may be restricted by law and persons intowhose possession this announcement comes should inform themselves about andobserve any such restrictions. This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements with respect tothe financial condition, results of operations and businesses of the CharlemagneCapital Group. These statements and forecasts involve risk and uncertaintybecause they relate to events and depend upon circumstances that will occur inthe future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results ordevelopments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by theseforward-looking statements and forecasts. Nothing in this announcement should beconstrued as a profit forecast. This statement is aimed at providing information regarding the Assets underManagement on which revenue is derived by Charlemagne Capital Limited. Theunaudited data contained in this statement are currently provisional and allsuch data are subject to change. This statement is produced in order to providegreater disclosure to investors and potential investors and to ensure that theyall receive equal access to the same information at the same time. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
CCAP.L