Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) is launching an emerging markets fund that aims to harness more opportunities from smaller countries than normally offered by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.
The Swiss fund management firm will manage the UBAM Global Emerging Equity fund from its London office using a proprietary country allocation model.
Mathieu Nègre, head of global emerging equities, leads the three-strong fund management team and says: “Compared to the MSCI Emerging Markets index, our fund spreads its country risk exposure much more equally, enabling smaller countries to contribute more to its performance.”
The emerging markets sphere contains 1000 stocks based in 23 countries, says UBP, but the fund’s quantitative and qualitative stock selection process screens stocks to narrow the investable universe to 180.
UBP has 25 emerging market specialists in Zurich, London, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Taipei and Shanghai that will also contribute to the management of the fund.
The fund is registered in Belgium, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
“The aim of this approach is primarily to reduce country risk, the main source of risk in an emerging market portfolio,” says Nègre.
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