Gartmore launches trust

GARTMORE Investment Management is launching an investment trust aimed at institutions and professional investors that will invest in emerging markets such as India, the Philippines, and Central and South America, writes Maria Scott.

The trust will invest in the markets via other closed-ended investment companies listed on a variety of world stock exchanges.

Gartmore has identified 160 such funds, trading at an average discount to net asset value of 30 per cent. Andrew Jardine, a director of Gartmore Investment Management, said the company expected discounts to narrow in the next few years because many of these funds will be nearing their wind-up dates or will be unitised.

Shares in the Gartmore Emerging Country Funds Trust are to be placed at 100p each. The closing date is 13 November and dealings are to commence on 26 November.

The trust's directors include Hamish McRae, a columnist on the Independent.