An emerging market investment trust that goes where others fear to tread

Many emerging market funds ignore “frontier” markets completely. But there are great opportunities in these less developed countries and companies, says Max King.

If the dividing line between developed and emerging markets can appear arbitrary, the one between emerging and frontier markets is incomprehensible. In the real world, it is hard to see the need for such a category. But in the investment world, these definitions are an administrative convenience.

When investment bank Morgan Stanley first compiled the benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets index, it chose to exclude markets that were too small or too illiquid for inclusion and lumped them in a separate Frontier Markets index. Bizarrely, this category today includes markets in the Gulf which are economically developed, such as Kuwait; European Union members, such as Romania; countries which are down but perhaps not out, such as Argentina; and finally those developing economies, like Vietnam, on a steady upward path.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.