First State Investments to offer Euro share class to investors

First State Investments (UK) Limited announced that it will introduce a new Euro share class for its First State Investments UK OEIC funds.

With effect from 1 May 2008, investors will be able to select a Euro share class in certain funds of First State's current specialist range, including the First State Global Resources Fund, the First State Greater China Growth Fund and the First State Asia Pacific Leaders Fund. Initially First State's sub-funds will only have the retail share class available in Euros. We plan to launch an institutional Euro share class at a later date.

Charlie Metcalfe, CEO, First State Investments said: ‘At First State we are committed to developing our European business and to enabling more investors to access our top performing specialist investment product range. As we launch more products into Europe and broaden our distribution universe, we believe that the launch of the Euro share class is a logical step that will help facilitate our growth into the European market. The launch of formal Euro share classes will also provide investors with access to First State's fund prices on European fund platforms.'

Earlier this year according to data published by Lipper Hindsight, the First State Global Resources Fund, managed by Dr Joanne Warner and the First State Indian Subcontinent Fund, managed by Vijay Tohani were ranked in the top ten of best performing funds in the UK for 2007 across all sectors. First State was also the only asset manager to have more than one fund listed within the top ten.