Blackrock touts mismatched alternative to shuttered trust
Emerging Europe shareholders offered switch into trust with a different investment universe
Emerging Europe shareholders offered switch into trust with a different investment universe
Blackrock manager Sam Vecht has suffered a further blow as the frontier markets fund he manages with Emily Fletcher is downgraded, less than two weeks after an investment trust he co-manages revealed it is winding up.
Mark Mobius has formally confirmed former Franklin Templeton colleagues Carlos Hardenberg and Greg Konieczny as founding partners in his eponymous boutique firm, as details of the planned emerging and frontier markets fund are revealed.
Blackrock fund managers Sam Vecht and Emily Fletcher are already in the process of introducing emerging market stocks into the Frontiers Investment Trust following an expansion of its investment universe less than a week ago, as they seek opportunities in the “forgotten” countries of both indices, which show reduced correlation with mainstream markets.
The board of the £313.3m Blackrock Frontiers Investment Trust has called a general meeting for shareholders to vote on expanding the fund’s investible universe to emerging markets following a spate of country reclassifications in MSCI indices.
After several tough years, things have been looking more positive for investors in emerging markets over the last couple of years, with the region outperforming its developed market peers in both 2016 and 2017.
With a return of 31.9% in dollar terms, the MSCI Frontier Markets Index achieved its highest gain in 10 years in 2017, continuing the theme of emerging markets outperforming their developed peers.
Frontier market funds are leading Europe’s emerging market fund pack with Charlemagne’s frontier market offering at the top, according to FE Analytics.
Frontier market equities saw the largest net inflows for a very long time in June, suggesting the interest in developing economies’ stock markets is broadening.
With a string of countries having been promoted to emerging market status by index provider MSCI in recent years, are frontier markets still a viable asset class?
Old Mutual Global Investors has hired Nick Payne, Salman Siddiqui and Liz Fernandes of Nomura Asset Management team to oversee its Global Emerging Markets Equity Fund mandate.
Franklin Templeton will reopen its Frontier Markets fund at the end of May after a four year closure.