The British asset management boutique RWC Partners is set to launch the RWC Next Generation Emerging Markets fund on 20 March. The fund will be managed by James Johnstone, headof the emerging and frontier markets team at RWC, with John Malloy. It will be based on an existing strategy managed by the unit, which had over USD6bn in assets under management as of the end of December 2018, and since 2014. The portfolio will include 50 to 70 positions, with minimal market capitalisation of USD750m, and trading volume of at least USD2bn. It will be exposed to sectors which the RWC team feel are well-positioned to benefit from trends such as urbanisation. The RWC Next Generation Emerging Markets fund is a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav RWC Funds. James Johnstone, manager of the fund, explains that the MSCI Emerging Markets index is currently highly concentrated, with 86% of the index distributed over eight countries, and the remaining 14% in 16 others. He explains that some countries are neglected, although they are on development paths once successfully followed bycountries that are traditionally considered to be emerging markets. «By investing in countries at an earlier stage of development versus large emerging markets – such as China, Brazil, India and Russia – we’re aiming to provide differentiated exposure to rapidly developing economies which also have low correlations to both developed markets and each other,» said Johnstone. RWC Partners had USD14.5bn in assets under management as of 31 December 2018.
