SocGen to add two sub-funds to Mena product

Société Générale Asset Management is launching Global Emerging Markets Infrastructure and Global Frontier portfolios to complement its offshore Mena product.

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SGAM is seeking permission from the Luxembourg authorities to add the two vehicles as sub-funds to its flagship SGAM Fund Sicav in October. It launched its $37.1m (£18.5m) SGAM Fund Equities MENA as part of the Sicav in May.

The Global Frontier fund will seek a 10 per cent annual return from countries in the MSCI Emerging Markets index, but not in the MSCI World.

The Global Emerging Markets Infrastructure fund will seek identical gains from infrastructure themes in emerging markets.

Both portfolios will invest solely in long-only equities, but neither will have benchmarks.

Phil Langham, head of global emerging markets at SGAM, will manage the Global Frontier fund and analyse its Asian and eastern European equities.

Adam Newman will run the Global Emerging Markets Infrastructure portfolio, which Mr Langham will assist on. Mr Newman will also look at Latin American equities for the Global Frontier fund.

Mark Krombas, who runs SGAM Fund Equities Mena, will round off the Global Frontier fund with input on Mena equities.

Mr Langham said his team would run the funds on a bottom-up, GARP basis, with more domestic stocks in the Global Frontier vehicle than in a typical emerging markets portfolio.

"Emerging markets have had a strong performance over the last few years," he said. "We've seen a strong demand for the next asset class, and we believe that is frontier markets. Their macroeconomic quality is strong. They have current account and fiscal surpluses. This asset class has tended to produce good returns since the beginning of the decade."

Unlike the Global Emerging Markets Infrastructure fund, however, Mr Langham said SGAM would have to cap inflows into the Global Frontier vehicle due to liquidity constraints.

The dollar-denominated funds will have a minimum investment of a single share, worth $100 at launch.

The initial charge will be up to 5 per cent, with a retail AMC of 2 per cent.

SGAM does not intend to add the fund to UK platforms as yet and is open to negotiation on IFA commission.

Meera Patel, senior funds analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "I'm all for the long-term investment case for these markets and themes, and I completely buy into them on a 10-year-plus view. I just wonder, in the short term, whether there might be a correction in some of these areas before the end of the year."

She said investors should explore a wide range of vehicles in the asset class before committing money to particular portfolios.

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