First State to launch Latin America fund

The new fund aims to take advantage of low valuations and growth opportunities in the region as worsening conditions in the global economy take hold.

The Latin America fund, which will be open to retail and institutional investors, will be managed by emerging market specialists, John Asante and Millar Mathieson. Alan Nesbit will act as the deputy fund manager.

Stuart Paul, joint managing partner at First State, said the company's approach to risk management would help it to deliver solid returns.

He added: "The launch of the First State Latin America fund will allow us to invest more extensively in a region which has huge potential, and at a time when quality companies increasingly present good value.

"Existing clients have encouraged this addition to our product offering and we look forward to the challenge of delivering investment returns."

The fund will sit within its onshore First State Investments ICVC range and will have a minimum subscription of £1,500 for retail investors.

Jonathan Asante, the fund manager and senior portfolio manager at First State, said the region was an exciting investment proposition.

He said: "If our focus were purely on raising assets, this would be a challenging time to launch a fund, however we are an investment team run by investors and our decision to launch this fund highlights the longer term opportunities we see in the region and the relative value starting selectively to appear there."

Mathieson said valuations were now at attractive levels, while an improvement in corporate governance and the large number of IPOs in Latin America had recently heightened the region's appeal.

He said management team are confident that the market provided good opportunities for investors in the region.

"We will invest with an absolute return mindset, but we're not an absolute return fund by any means. We look at the downside as well as the upside," said Mathieson.

"The risk for us is losing our clients' money, and at this stage it is also losing our own money. Everyone on the team has a vast proportion of his or her incentivisation package invested back into the funds we run."

The fund will be benchmarked against the MSCI EM Latin America index.

The launch has been welcomed by IFAs in recognition of the managers' experience and knowledge in the global emerging markets sector.

Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea Financial Services, said the new fund would build on the expertise of the managers.

He added: "First State has a proven long-term track record in global emerging markets. Jonathan Asante is a proven emerging markets fund manager and we expect this fund to do well."