Charlemagne Capital and Turquoise Partners have launched the Turquoise Variable Capital Investment Fund. Perhaps ironically in light of the move taken by the US regarding its sanctions against Iran, the Cyprus-domiciled fund is not available to US investors.

The fund focuses on Iran’s domestic economy; its managers expect a lifting of sanctions to enable gross domestic growth rates of 6 to 8 per cent a year for “the foreseeable future”, a statement said. The fund is jointly advised by Turquoise Partners and Charlemagne Capital.

The Turquoise investment team is led by Shervin Shahriari who has been active in the Iranian market since 2002 and has worked for Turquoise since 2005, along with Ramin Rabii, the chief executive of the group. The Charlemagne Capital team is led by Stefan Bottcher and Dominic Bokor-Ingram, who have both been active in emerging and frontier markets for over 20 years.

Turquoise Partners has more than 100 employees based in Tehran. Turquoise manages more than 90 per cent of the foreign portfolio investment on the Tehran Stock Exchange.

Charlemagne Capital is an AIM-quoted dedicated emerging market firm.