HSBC finally unveils MENA fund

HSBC Global Asset Management has unveiled the GIF Middle East and North Africa fund a year after it was initially slated for launch.

The group, who says the postponement was due to "extreme global market volatility" believe the region now has a more secure outlook and but remains cheap. Managed by Andrea Nannini at Halbis, HSBC's active management specialist, the HSBC GIF MENA fund will sit within the group's Luxembourg-domiciled Global Investment Funds Sicav. Benchmarked against the MSCI Arabian ex-Saudi Arabia Total Return index, the fund will invest in companies with a market cap of over $50m and will typically hold 50-60 stocks. Nannini will use a bottom-up, valuation-driven approach, selecting stocks with s...