Global asset manager Russell Investments has launched a new broad emerging markets fund that aims to provide investors with greater access to opportunities in small cap and frontier markets for significant active returns.

At launch, the Emerging Markets Extended Opportunities Fund comprises seven third-party investment managers combining global, cap-specific, regional, and country-specific strategies, together with direct investment portfolio managed by Russell.

These are JK Capital, Delaware, Quantum, East Capital, Somerset, Imara and Victoria 1522.

Russell portfolio manager Scott Crawshaw said: 'There has been a great deal of change in the world of emerging markets investment over the last few years and clients are looking to further diversify portfolios into less efficient segments of the asset class.'

'This fund deliberately targets these opportunities through specialist managers with the aim to enhance return expectations,' he noted.

The emerging markets have been through a period of accelerated development over the last 10 years and the opportunities for active management are evolving, said a statement from Russell Investments.

“Choosing the best money managers for a particular product and putting them together in the best way for investors are two of the key levers in our multi-asset solutions,' said Crawshaw.

On their appointment to the fund, John Legat, chief executive at Imara Asset Management: “Imara was very impressed with the high level of due diligence undertaken by Russell Investments in their manager search, sending two teams to Harare covering first Imara’s investment process and then risk and compliance.'

'We were therefore proud to have been selected as the specialist Pan-African manager in their new fund.”

Fabrice Jacob, CEO of JK Capital Management said, “We are proud of having been selected by Russell Investments to be responsible for the China exposure of their latest fund of managed accounts.'

The fund is benchmarked against the Russell Emerging Extended Index Net which has returned over 12 per cent since the beginning of 2012, said the statement from Russell Investments.

This index includes frontier markets and as such represents the broader opportunity set across the asset class. The fund annual management charge at launch is 1.30 per cent, it added.-TradeArabia News Service