Baltic Fund celebrates 10 years

RIGA - A 10-year return of more than700 percent is the sort of thing to make investors pinch themselves incase they are dreaming, but anyone who put money into a new fundcalled the East Capital Baltic Fund a decade ago will be wide awakeand enjoying reality.

The East Capital Baltic Fund iscelebrating its tenth anniversary with gains of +724% (USD) sinceinception on 30 June 1998. The benchmark Baltic 30 Index has postedgains of 332% (USD) for the same period.

The figures give a timely reminder thatdespite the current atmosphere of uncertainty, the Baltic has been ahappy hunting ground for investors for a long time now. Even recentlosses have been modest compared to the years of supercharged growththat preceded them.

"We are still a very active fundmanager in the Baltics. We have been investing in the region for tenyears now and have long-term faith in its growth," says AivarasAbromavicius, partner at East Capital, which recently held ahigh-profile summit in Vilnius to mark its ongoing commitment to theregion.

"Although the economic downturn weare currently witnessing is noticeable on the stock markets, it isactually necessary in order to shake off the imbalances that havebuilt up over recent years due to the very high growth levels. Wethink that the growth will return and that it will be more balancedand sustainable," says Marcus Svedberg, East Capital's ChiefEconomist.

The fund is focused on the domesticgrowth sectors, with consumer goods, banking and retail being themost dominant. The fund's country breakdown is currently: 58%Lithuanian, 25% Estonian and 16% Latvian investments. The fund has atotal of approximately USD 160m under management.

East Capital is an independent assetmanager specialising in Eastern European financial markets andmanaging EUR 4.4bn across 29 countries.

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