Neptune prepares Africa fund for returning Kuhn

Former Neptune India and Asia Pacific Opportunities manager Shelley Kuhn has returned to the boutique to run a new African equity fund.

Kuhn, who left Neptune in the summer of 2009 to move back to her native South Africa, re-joined the group in April to run the new specialist portfolio. Launching on 31 August, the 30-50 stock Neptune Africa fund will follow the boutique's top-down thematic investment process. Retail investors may be a little wary of investing in an African-focused vehicle, after seeing the demise of the New Star Heart of Africa fund due to severe illiquidity in 2008 and 2009. However, Kuhn says the Neptune fund can avoid many of these dangers with a strong allocation to the highly liquid South Africa...