Cube Capital, the London-based alternative investment firm, has launched a new Myanmar-focused fund in response to the recently lifted sanctions on foreign investors this year. 

The Cube Asia Frontier Fund will invest in real estate in Mongolia, Myanmar and Vietnam. Foreign investors have been restricted from entering Myanmar until April this year, clearing the way for international players to take advantage of what the Asian Development Bank predicts would be a 6 per cent growth in the country in 2012. 

For the launch, Cube Capital is partnering with Serge Pun and Associates, a subsidiary of Singapore's Yoma Strategic Holdings. The deal was struck on a private basis for a family office, with the aim to raise as much as $150 million. The target investment period is about two and a half years with a harvest period of five years.

The timing appears tricky for the Cayman Islands-headquartered firm, however. On 11 June, Myanmar's western Rakhine state announced a state of emergency following deadly clashes between the Buddhists and Muslims in the region. According to President Thein Sein, the attacks were fuelled by "hatred and revenge based on religion and nationality."

Cube Capital has yet to comment on this sudden change and how it would affect its expansion plans in the country.