Everest Capital Launches ’Frontier’ Hedge Fund
Friday, August 6, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Everest Capital, a $2 billion hedge-fund firm run by Marko Dimitrijevic, has launched a new fund focused on so-called frontier markets such as Nigeria, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Everest, which has been investing in emerging markets for roughly 20 years, started trading in the “frontier” markets in 2008.
By June, the firm had $90 million allocated to its frontier strategy. The money came from the firm and from one of Everest’s long-term strategy investors.
Now Everest is opening the strategy to outside investors, according to a letter recently sent to existing investors. The new fund’s capacity is about $400 million, the firm stated in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by MarketWatch.
Frontier markets are considered less developed than emerging markets. Despite that fact, there’s been rising interest in this segment of the global economy. Everest said frontier markets include 17 of the 20 fastest-growing economies.
“We expect that the emergence of young consumers into middle-class economies across frontier markets will result in growth engines for years to come,” the firm said in its letter to investors.
In 2015, 39% of the world’s 15- to 24-year-olds and 34% of the world’s 25- to 34-year-olds will live in frontier-economy countries, Everest added.