The Frontier Markets Equity Fund, a SICAV, invests across the entire frontier investment universe, including countries outside the MSCI Frontier Markets Index.
The Luxembourg-domiciled fund has been launched but is in process of being registered across Europe. It is managed by Oliver Bell, who brings with him 16 years of investment experience in developing markets.
“In many ways, frontier markets today show similar characteristics to mainstream emerging markets 15 to 20 years ago. Frontier markets have undergone structural changes, and we are now at a stage where the cocktail of ingredients needed for these economies to evolve have come together,” according to Bell.
This is the first frontier market product that the firm is offering. Its most similar fund is the Middle East and Africa Fund also managed by Bell.
“I expect frontier equity markets to adopt many of the changes implemented by several emerging markets,” Bell said.
“The asset class remains undercapitalised and under owned, with strong growth potential. The possible magnitude of their economies and growth prospects are not reflected in the scale of their stock market capitalisation.”
