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Driehaus Frontier Emerging Markets Fund in registration
I don't know much about Driehaus and it seems they've done a good job with their Emerging Markets funds, but is anyone worried that these frontier emerging markets funds now seem to be popping up everywhere? A year or 18 months ago there were just a handful and I never received any positive feedback when I wrote to a few funds companies I respect and asked them whether they would consider launching a fund focused on these markets. Just in the last week we've been having discussions about a bunch of relatively new ones- WSENX, EMIRX, MEASX isn't so old, now Driehaus.
Could this be a good thing as there will be more options and somewhat differing strategies to choose from? Or is this the beginning of a disaster when prices get driven up without the fundamentals to support them and then eventually crash when people realize its not the panacea they were hoping for?
The distinction, which we mention in our profile of Driehaus Emerging Markets Small Cap Growth , is the Driehaus substantially hedges their portfolio. That's produced a pretty remarkable profile. Maybe here, too. We'll see.
The minimum investments are too big for me, but I guess if you can attract the assets you want in that way then more power to you.
Whatever they've done with the small cap emerging markets fund has worked. They've been better than their category on a calendar year basis both up and down with the exception of their first full year.
Good point! I guess it depends on the size of your portfolio, but I would never come close even though I have something like 10x as much invested compared to their percentage of global capitalization. To put it in perspective, I think if your portfolio was a little below $80MM and you invested $250K in frontier markets you'd be right in line with a market cap weighted allocation!
When a fund has a high "initial minmum" is an investor required to maintain that minmum forever? I have often wonder if an investor could meet the initial minimum and than after the "minimum holding period" lower their balance to a more appropriate amount.
When a fund has a high "initial minmum" is an investor required to maintain that minmum forever? I have often wonder if an investor could meet the initial minimum and than after the "minimum holding period" lower their balance to a more appropriate amount.
The answer is generally *NO* I say generally because I have never had a fund company require me to maintain the high initial minimum, say 250M or so.
While I did notice the registration filing for Driehaus and post it above; I did not notice the minimum investment required when posting the link. Initially, my thoughts were it was a new fund from Driehaus and it was strange that Driehaus was coming out with a new fund in the frontier markets despite closing its International Discovery Fund which was discussed here:
Comments
Could this be a good thing as there will be more options and somewhat differing strategies to choose from? Or is this the beginning of a disaster when prices get driven up without the fundamentals to support them and then eventually crash when people realize its not the panacea they were hoping for?
David
Whatever they've done with the small cap emerging markets fund has worked. They've been better than their category on a calendar year basis both up and down with the exception of their first full year.
As the time gets closer, I'll ask. For the nonce they're not going to speak, citing the SEC's "quiet period."
David
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/16458/reorganization-of-driehaus-international-discovery-fund-into-intl-small-cap-fund#latest