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Emerging markets boutique Charlemagne Capital has revealed intentions to bring a Middle East and North Africa fund to the retail market early this month.

Magna MENA will be an open-ended Ucits III offering, which will invest in the big players of the Arab-speaking world, targeting Middle Eastern countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, along with North African countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Stocks from Jordan and Lebanon will also feature in the portfolio.

Fund managers Gabor Sitanyi and Sharat Dua are planning on taking a market-neutral approach by exploiting inefficiencies in local stock valuations. They will use the same bottom-up techniques already in effect across the firm's eight other Magna portfolios, which include Africa and Asia-focused offerings.

Mr Sitanyi said: "The Gulf countries and North Africa offer safe, logically driven growth opportunities at reasonable valuations, which the Magna MENA fund will seek to capitalise on through our investment process. We have spent the past 12 months researching this space, meeting with a large number of companies, and we see plenty of attractive opportunities across a range of sectors."

Mr Sitanyi referred to the need for investment on infrastructure projects, which he said would ensure future growth and labour inflows. The consumer market is under-penetrated given the region's expanding population and rising middle class, Mr Sitanyi continued, which he said threw up openings for generating returns.

In addition, the fund is likely to have significant stakes in banking, industrial, real estate and telecoms sectors.

Mr Sitanyi and Mr Dua will be supported by a team of regional specialists, including analysts from the £111.6m Magna Africa fund, where Charlemagne said its investment professionals already had experience of northern countries.

Although when it launched last year Magna Africa was heavily tilted towards South Africa at roughly 75 per cent, it had a sizeable stake in Egypt at 16 per cent.

Charlemagne's MENA launch follows hot on the heels of similar ventures from Franklin Templeton Investments, Société Générale Asset Management and Investec Asset Management. Analysts have highlighted the fact that while stock exchanges in frontier markets tend to behave with more volatility than their developed counterparts, pricing is often less rigorous, meaning attentive stockpickers have the chance to pick up select paper cheaply.

Minimum investment for Magna MENA's sterling share class is £10,000, while for the euro share class it is €5000.

In line with the Magna range, dealing will be on a daily basis, except for Fridays.