Fund Management
Barings Taps Into New Market With Fund Launch

After securing regulatory approval,
Baring Asset Management, the London-headquartered investment
house which is part of MassMutual Financial Group, has launched
the Baring Frontier Markets Fund.
The fund holds over $21 million in assets under management, and
seeks to achieve long-term capital growth through at least 70 per
cent exposure to frontier markets in places such as Nigeria,
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Investment manager Michael Levy heads the fund, with the support
of Dr Ghadir Abu Leil-Cooper, head of EMEA at Barings. They will
use a combination of top-down analysis of the political and
economic factors affecting each country and industry,
together with a bottom-up stock selection process to seek strong
investment returns in markets that fall outside developed or
emerging market benchmarks, the firm said.
As reported by this publication, Levy has previously said: “We
believe that frontier markets are now positioned where emerging
markets were 20 years ago - poised to become the next big
opportunity in the coming years. We believe these markets
are widely mispriced and hold undiscovered investment
opportunities.”
Speaking on the launch of the new vehicle, Levy added that
frontier markets represent a compelling investment proposition
for experienced investors who are aware of the risks associated
with holding equities in these markets.
Barings likewise added that frontier markets offer the potential
for strong long-term growth, in a low growth world, and that low
correlation with both emerging and developed markets, as well as
low intra-country correlation, means that such markets also offer
diversification benefits.
The firm gave an approximate asset allocation by geography and
delegated a majority, some 53.5 per cent, to the MENA region,
followed by 23.5 per cent to Africa.