Aberdeen plans to launch Global-Emerging Markets Smaller Companies Fund

Aberdeen Asset Managers Limited announces plans to launch the Aberdeen Global-Emerging Markets Smaller Companies Fund, a new sub-fund of Aberdeen Global, the Company’s Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV, in response to rising interest in the asset class.

The planned launch is subject to regulatory approval.

The Fund will be managed by Aberdeen’s highly regarded Global Emerging Markets Team, headed by Devan Kaloo. It will aim to provide long-term capital growth through investment in a portfolio of smaller company equities listed on emerging stock markets around the world (defined as companies with market caps below $2.5 billion), or smaller companies with significant activities in emerging markets.

The launch of the Fund, scheduled for March 2007, comes amid growing demand from Aberdeen’s institutional clients for exposure to emerging market smaller companies.

Aberdeen believes its trademark research-based stock-picking style will enable it to extract considerable long term value from what is still a comparatively under-researched asset class. For Aberdeen, rising domestic consumption is a key emerging markets theme. The Company believes that growing, youthful populations with burgeoning workforces should boost earning and spending power in emerging economies, and that this in turn will drive domestic growth. For investors who already have exposure to emerging markets, the Aberdeen Global Emerging Markets Smaller Companies Fund will offer greater exposure to the domestic growth story through the wide range of domestic-orientated smaller companies available.

Devan Kaloo, Head of Global Emerging Markets at Aberdeen, said: “By capitalizing on the poor level of research on emerging market smaller companies Aberdeen aims to create considerable long-term value for its clients through the new Aberdeen Global Emerging Markets Smaller Companies Fund.

“For this year we expect markets to rise again, but not as strongly as they did in 2006, because economic growth and corporate profit growth are likely to be somewhat slower. Meanwhile, the long-term story in emerging markets is about rising domestic consumption, given these economies’ growing, youthful populations. The new Aberdeen Global Emerging Markets Smaller Companies Fund will offer clients extensive exposure to this via domestic-orientated companies.”