Northern Trust Global Investments (NTGI) has established a Frontier Markets index fund, which provides institutional investors with exposure to areas including Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Specifically, Frontier Markets are developing countries that have high economic growth rates and small, relatively illiquid and undercapitalized equity markets, such as Nigeria, Kenya, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Croatia, Romania, Qatar and Kuwait.
The index strategy is offered to institutional investors in a collective trust fund structure to provide enhanced transparency, trading efficiency and institutional pricing for investors, according to a press release.
NTGI examined a range of Frontier Markets for operational and regulatory market complexities, and investigated various frontier benchmarks for diversification and transaction cost to determine the most efficient way to get exposure to the asset class, said the release.
