27th May 2008 07:00
27 May 2008
Charlemagne Capital launches its first Middle East & North Africa Fund
Charlemagne Capital the specialist emerging markets group is pleased to announce that it will launch its first Middle East and North Africa fund in June 2008.
The Magna MENA Fund ("the Fund") will invest in companies that have a significant presence in the Arabic-speaking world. The region can be split into two areas - the Gulf countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE; and those of North Africa, including Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. It also includes Jordan and the Lebanon.
The strategy of the Fund is to exploit market inefficiencies to generate excess returns independent of the broader market.This is within a disciplined framework of risk management and portfolio construction, employing Charlemagne Capital's bottom up approach to stock picking as in the eight other Magna sub-funds.
The investment case for the region is based upon the prospect of strong economic growth that arises both from the reinvestment of oil wealth and from the potential of a young and rapidly developing population. The Gulf countries are embarking upon a USD 800 billion investment programme over the next five years. This is approximately equal to the current GDP of these countries and can be financed from existing reserves.
The Gulf region has strong, uncorrelated growth, with significant savings and committed infrastructure projects. The robust pre-funded future growth will act as a magnet for capital and labour inflows. North Africa has a young and fast growing population with an emerging middle class but with an under-penetrated consumer market. With limited economic risks and high sustainable economic growth, the region makes an attractive risk return proposition which the Fund aims to capitalise on.
The investor friendly environment and increasingly diversified economies allow the Fund to be exposed to various sectors within the region, including the banking, industrial, real estate and telecoms sectors.
Gabor Sitanyi is the Lead Portfolio Advisor and, together with Sharat Dua, will lead the team which has on average 18 years experience of global emerging markets and specifically the EMEA region. Charlemagne Capital is already investing in some of these markets through EMEA mandates and the Magna Africa Fund which it manages, and aims to utilise its relevant local knowledge and proven investment process.
Gabor Sitanyi, Lead Portfolio Adviser commented:
"The Gulf countries and North Africa offer safe, locally driven growth opportunities at reasonable valuations which the Magna MENA Fund will seek to capitalise on through our investment process. We have spent the last 12 months researching this space, meeting with a large number of companies and we see plenty of attractive opportunities across a range of sectors."
The Fund will be daily dealing in line with the other Magna funds, (apart from Fridays) and will have Euro, Sterling and US Dollar share classes.
Enquiries:
|
Charlemagne Capital |
020 7518 2100 |
|
Gabor Sitanyi / Varda Lotan |
|
Smithfield Consultants |
020 7360 4900 |
|
John Kiely / George Hudson / Tom Hardman |
Notes to Editors
Charlemagne Capital is a specialist emerging markets group. Charlemagne Capital Limited was admitted to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange on 4 April 2006.
Charlemagne's product range comprises mutual funds, hedge funds and institutional and specialist fund products primarily covering GEMs, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia. Charlemagne employs a range of investment strategies including: long only, long/short, structured products and private equity. Charlemagne's funds aim to exploit the inefficiencies in the market via a strict bottom up approach and focused stock selection.
The Magna Umbrella Fund plc is a daily dealing UCITS fund, consisting of nine geographically focused sub-funds. The OCCO fund range is Charlemagne Capital's hedge fund range, employing a long/short equity strategy to produce consistent absolute & risk adjusted performance by exploiting inefficiencies in the markets. The funds have a maximum standard deviation target of 12% p.a.
Through the strong long-term investment performance track record of its principal funds, Charlemagne Capital has established itself as a market leader in emerging markets investment management. Its performance has been recognised through numerous awards and top rankings for its funds, including: the 2005 Standard and Poor's 5-year best performing fund award in Austria; the 2006 Swiss Lipper Leaders 5-year award winner for Emerging Markets Europe; a AA-rating by Standard & Poor's for its Magna Eastern European Fund (a sub-fund of Magna Umbrella Fund Plc); and it was ranked number one in the LatAm universe in the Standard & Poor's Cash Funds Awards 2007 (Switzerland).
This announcement is not for publication or distribution to persons in the United 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, as amended). Neither this announcement nor any copy of it may be taken or transmitted into Australia, Canada or Japan or to Canadian persons or to any securities analyst or other person in any of those jurisdictions. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of United States, Australian, Canadian or Japanese securities law. The distribution of this announcement in other jurisdictions may be restricted by law and persons into whose possession this announcement comes should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions.
This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of the Charlemagne Capital Group. These statements and forecasts involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend upon circumstances that will occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements and forecasts. Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit forecast.
This statement is aimed at providing information regarding the Assets under Management on which revenue is derived by Charlemagne Capital Limited. The unaudited data contained in this statement are currently provisional and all such data are subject to change. This statement is produced in order to provide greater disclosure to investors and potential investors and to ensure that they all receive equal access to the same information at the same time.
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