CCAP.L Regulatory News (CCAP)

13 Jun 2006 07:02

Charlemagne Capital Limited13 June 2006 Tuesday 13 June 2006 CHARLEMAGNE CAPITAL LAUNCHES MAGNA ASIA FUND WITH US$25 MILLION COMMITMENTS Charlemagne Capital, the specialist emerging markets equity investmentmanagement group, today announces the launch of the Magna Asia Fund, which hasalready received US$25 million of commitments. The strategy of the Magna Asia Fund is to invest in a variety of Asian marketsincluding Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand and India. In line withCharlemagne Capital's investment philosophy, the Magna Asia Fund employs thesame bottom-up approach to stock picking as in the eight other Magna sub-funds.As at 1 June 2006, the Magna range had total assets under management ("AuM") ofUS$1.05 billion. The investment objective of the Magna range is to deliveroutperformance of the relevant benchmark index for each sub-fund via activemanagement. KC Reddy & Sangita Uberoi are the managers of the Magna Asia Fund and the MagnaIndia Fund, the latter of which is ranked number two out of 38 Indian funds,year to date, according to Standard & Poors. For the period 1 January 2006 - 31 May 2006, the Magna India Fund returned+10.19% against the benchmark MSCI India • Index which declined 1.07% over thesame period. Commenting on the launch of the Magna Asia Fund, Julian Mayo, InvestmentDirector, said: "It is a good time to be investing in the Asian markets following the recentcorrection and we see plenty of attractive opportunities across a range ofsectors using our strict bottom-up stock picking process." Enquiries: Charlemagne Capital Tel. 020 7518 2100Julian Mayo, Investment Director, Charlemagne Capital Smithfield Consultants Tel. 020 7360 4900John KielyGeorge Hudson This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements with respect tothe financial condition, results of operations and businesses of the CharlemagneCapital Group. These statements and forecasts involve risk and uncertaintybecause they relate to events and depend upon circumstances that will occur inthe future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results ordevelopments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by theseforward-looking statements and forecasts. Nothing in this announcement should beconstrued as a profit forecast. Notes to Editors: Charlemagne Capital is a specialist emerging markets equity investmentmanagement group. Charlemagne Capital Limited was admitted to the AIM market ofthe London Stock Exchange on 4 April 2006. Charlemagne's product range comprises mutual funds, hedge funds andinstitutional and specialist fund products primarily covering GEMs, EasternEurope, Latin America and Asia. Charlemagne Capital employs a range ofinvestment strategies including: long only, long/short, structured products andprivate equity. Charlemagne Capital's funds aim to exploit the inefficiencies inthe market via a strict bottom up approach and focused stock selection. Magna funds (UCITS III funds): The Magna Umbrella Fund plc is a daily dealingUCITS fund, consisting of nine geographically focused sub-funds with total AuMof US$1.05 billion as at 1 June 2006. Originally launched as the Magna EuropaFund in 1998, it was converted to a UCITS umbrella fund in April 2003. The OCCO fund range is Charlemagne Capital's hedge fund range, consisting of theOCCO Eastern European (which is closed), Global Emerging Markets, Asia and LatinAmerica funds (the latter launched in April 2005). All of the OCCO funds employa long/short equity strategy investing across global emerging markets with abottom up approach. The funds aim to produce consistent absolute & risk adjustedperformance by exploiting inefficiencies in the markets through both long &short positions. The funds have a maximum standard deviation target of 12% p.a.The OCCO Eastern European Fund was the first hedge fund which CharlemagneCapital launched in December 2001. The fund was up 16.35% in 2005, withvolatility of 7.24%, and has had annualised returns of 17.31 % (in USD). Through the strong long-term investment performance track record of itsprincipal funds, Charlemagne Capital has established itself as a market leaderin emerging markets investment management. Its performance has been recognisedthrough numerous awards and top rankings for its funds, including the 2005Standard and Poor's 5-year best performing fund award in Austria, the 2006 SwissLipper Leaders 5-year award winner for Emerging Markets Europe and an AAA-ratingby Standard & Poor's for its Magna Eastern European Fund (a sub-fund of MagnaUmbrella Fund Plc). This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange