Duet Africa Index launches in March
The Duet Africa Index Plc, a closed-ended fund is expected to formally launch in March 2011 on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The Duet Group will act as fund manager and Standard Bank will act as market maker for the fund, in accordance with the rules of the LSE. Smith & Williamson Corporate Finance will act as sponsor and JP Morgan as fund custodian and administrator.
The fund will seek to replicate a proprietary benchmark index composed of companies listed on the stock exchanges in Sub-Saharan African countries, excluding South Africa, with a market capitalisation above US$250 million that meet minimum trading liquidity requirements. This index is a customised market capitalisation weighted index developed by Dr Ayo Salami of Duet and reviewed by Standard Bank. The fund manager has the discretion to exclude any company from the Index which he feels is suffering from financial problems.
Duet is a global alternative asset manager founded in 2002 with over US$2.4 billion of equity under management as of 1 January 2011 across its hedge funds and real estate/infrastructure investments and employs 73 professionals in London, New York, Tokyo, Singapore, New Delhi, Dubai and Istanbul.
Standard Bank is a leading African banking group focused on emerging markets globally, which spans 17 countries across the African continent and 15 countries outside Africa. Its group assets stood at US$173 billion and market capitalisation at US$21 billion on 30 June 2010 and it employs more than 52 000 people worldwide.
