Duet Asset Management, the London-based alternative asset manager, has launched the Duet Victoire Africa Index Fund, the first sub-Saharan African index tracking fund, which offers investors access to the sub-Saharan African equity markets. The fund tracks the sub-Saharan Africa Large Companies Index which is composed of companies listed on the stock exchanges of Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The fund will be managed by a committee comprising Henry Gabay, co-chief executive of Duet Group, Dr Ayo Salami, director of index provider African Business Research, together with Duet investment managers Karim Khimji and Uday Garg. “It is actually difficult for actively managed funds to generate alpha in Africa. By the time a stock will meet the minimum liquidity and size constraints that most active fund managers apply, the stock is not likely to be under-valued," said Dr Salami. “An active manager who wants to generate alpha has to look at the second line stocks, where liquidity is still low and the companies are truly undervalued. However these smaller fast growing companies are usually too small and illiquid for sizeable investment. Investors can now access the growth of the sub-Saharan Africa region at a low cost through our index fund.” The fund is a Jersey domiciled expert fund, listed on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange and is the first index fund to track sub-Saharan Africa equity markets. The minimum investment is $100,000 and the annual management charges are 1.25 per cent. The sub-Saharan Africa Large Companies Index was created and is maintained by Dr Salami. It is a market cap-weighted Index measuring of the composite performance of large companies listed on stock exchanges in sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa. Duet Group was founded in June 2002 in London and has $1.5 billion of assets under management through Duet Asset Management and Duet Private Equity.