Frontier Markets

The impact of new political regimes

Frontier market indicies had a reshuffle this year as UAE and Qatar ascended to emerging market. VAM Funds' Chad Cleaver explains why Vietnam and Sri Lanka are now the leading lights of the sector.

Investors in frontier markets are among the bigger winners of 2014. The MSCI Frontier Markets returned 17.9% in the year to 3 December 2014, compared to a paltry 5.2% for the MSCI Emerging Markets.

Spotlight on: Asia’s banking sector

Some investors love the return potential of frontier markets, while others consider them volatile and expensive.

Georgia, Senegal, and Ghana could be the next candidates to be upgraded to MSCI frontier market status, according to LGM Investments' Thomas Vester.

LGM Investments (formerly Lloyd George Management) has reopened its LGM Frontier Markets strategy to investors following a dip in assets.

Frontier market debt: Time to catch up?

Fund buyers are taking profits in frontier markets after the recent reshuffle of constituents and a strong run of performance.

Taking 2013 as a whole, emerging markets fell by 4.4% at a time when the MSCI Frontier Markets index rose by an impressive 23.6% (in sterling, net total return).