Martin Currie opens GEM Sicav to retail investors

Martin Currie has made its Global Emerging Markets (GEM) Sicav available to UK retail investors.

The UCITS IV-compliant Sicav is managed by Kim Catechis and co-managers Alastair Reynolds and Divya Mathur.

The 40 to 60 stock portfolio is benchmarked against the MSCI Emerging Markets index and is unconstrained at a country and sector level.

"We believe that despite the current global economic headwinds, the long-term investment case for emerging-market equities remains entirely intact - and the opportunity set remains vast," said Catechis.

"Developing countries such as China, Brazil and India do face an ongoing battle to balance growth, inflation and credit availability, and the market has clearly taken a more bearish stance lately. But in reality there has been very little change in fundamentals, and this is reflected in our investment positioning," he added.

Catechis and his entire investment team joined Martin Currie from Swip in 2010.

The fund's annual management charge is 1.5%, with an initial charge of up to 5%. It is available in US dollar, sterling and euro share classes.