Martin Currie to launch China equity fund
Martin Currie will be offering a China equity fund to retail investors from 10 March 2010. While that might seem like a trendy fund launch on the back of strong returns in China during 2009, Martin Currie has had expertise here for some considerable time. The fund will be managed James Chong, who has 15 years’ investment experience; he will lead a Shanghai-based team of nine analysts who have an average experience of nine years. Chong will use Martin Currie’s growth-oriented, bottom-up process and build a concentrated portfolio of 40-60 stocks. The fund will be benchmarked against the MSCI Zhong Hua Index and its annual management charge will be 1.5% for the retail ‘A’ share class and 1% for the institutional class.
Thames River launches European property equity fund
Thames River Capital plans to launch the UCITS III Thames River Real Estate Securities fund in the first quarter of 2010, although it is still subject to regulatory approval. The fund is to be managed by James Wilkinson and Marcus Phayre-Mudge and will offer daily liquidity by investing in listed real estate companies in Europe. It will be benchmarked against the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Europe Capped Index. The managers will also use UCITS III powers: it will have gross exposure to real estate stocks of between 80-160% of net assets and net exposure of between 60-140%.
Templeton Emerging Markets Bond fund is now accessible to UK investors
Franklin Templeton Investments have made their Luxembourg-registered Templeton Emerging Markets Bond Fund available to UK retail investors through two new share classes. Investors can invest via the new GBP-denominated distributor-status share class and USD-denominated accumulation share class from 29 January 2010; a minimum investment of $5000 or GBP equivalent is required. The fund was launched in July 1991 and held $2.3 billion in assets as at 31 December 2009. Manager Dr. Michael Hasenstab invests in fixed or floating rate debt securities of government or government-related issuers of developing or emerging economies.
IMA changes its Global Emerging Markets sector definition
The Investment Management Association – a group which represents the fund management industry – has changed its requirement for a fund to be classified in its Global Emerging Market sector. From 1 February 2010, any fund in the sector must invest at least 80% of its assets in the constituents of the FTSE or MSCI Global Emerging Market indexes. The previous requirements were based on the World Bank’s definition of emerging markets.
Morningstar qualitative ratings and reports issued this week
Morningstar issued new qualitative ratings and reports on a number of funds available to UK investors this week, including Thames River Equity Managed, Schroder ISF Latin America and Cazenove Multi Manager UK Growth. Click here to see the full list.