HSBC Global Asset Management has launched HSBC GIF Frontier Markets fund. This is a long-only equity portfolio offering institutional and retail investors exposure to the next generation of emerging markets.
The existing HSBC New Frontiers Fund, which was originally launched in February 2008 as a Luxembourg based SIF (Specialist Investment Fund – as Frontier Markets investments were not UCITS compliant at that time), has been merged into the new HSBC GIF Frontier Markets fund.
Until now Frontier Markets have been primarily available to institutional clients however HSBC GIF Frontier Markets Fund will offer a retail share class (Minimum US$5,000) as part of HSBC Global Asset Management’s global flagship platform, the Luxembourg-domiciled Global Investment Funds (GIF) range, which is available for sale in more than 30 countries. The newly launched portfolio will offer daily dealing.
Andrea Nannini, who had been managing the HSBC New Frontiers Fund since launch, and is responsible for managing some US$170m in Frontier Markets assets, (as at 30 November, 2011) will manage the newly created portfolio, with the same objective of aiming to achieve long-term capital growth by investing in the securities of companies located in or operating in Frontier Emerging Markets. As with the former fund, the HSBC GIF Frontier Markets portfolio is benchmarked against the MSCI Frontier Markets Capped Index.
Frontier markets, a subset of emerging market nations, which include countries such as Qatar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Vietnam, Romania and Argentina are typically at an earlier stage of economic, political and financial development, offering potentially higher growth rates and returns over the long term, albeit with a higher risk profile than traditional emerging market nations.
Andy Clark, Head of Wholesale, EMEA, HSBC Global Asset Management, said: “The availability of HSBC Frontier Markets expertise in the GIF format with a retail share class caters for the demand from those investors seeking exposure to the next generation of global emerging markets, offering investors a further level of portfolio diversification.
“The HSBC GIF Frontier Markets fund gels well with HSBC Global Asset Management’s objective of being the world’s leading manager and distributor of emerging market products. HSBC’s research forecasts that by 2050 the collective size of the economies we call ‘emerging markets’ will increase five-fold and will be larger than the developed world, with 19 of the 30 biggest economies being from the emerging world.”
HSBC Global Asset Management is one of the leading managers and distributors of global emerging markets products with US$139bn invested in this asset class.
The fund’s annual management charge is 1.75% for retail investors (A class) and 1.25% for institutional investors (I class). The minimum investment for retail investors is US$5,000 and US$1,000,000 for institutional investors.
Source : HSBC
