EM specialist FMG unveils Maltese umbrella

The company said its new Comino umbrella fund – or "platform" as the company often refers to it – will go live “imminently”, and will be an “external SICAV platform” intended for use by such entities as other small asset managers, family offices, and other legal entities. (See table, below.)

The Comino umbrella fund will enable entities that have as little as €1m in assets under management to set up a fund under a name and investment strategy of their choice. Under the umbrella fund structure, this fund would exist as a sub-fund of the Comino entity, enabling its sponsors to “forgo both capital and staffing requirements”, FMG said, in an informational document aimed at would-be Comino umbrella fund clients.

If an entity interested in setting up a Comino sub-fund is already regulated as an investment manager, the investment management role will be sub-contracted to the entity, while if it is not already a regulated IM, “your company will act as the sub-adviser to the fund”, the FMG document adds.

The Comino name reflects the fund’s Maltese domicile, as Comino is one of the main islands in the Maltese archipelago. It is said to be named after the cumin seed that used to grow there.

In launching the Comino umbrella fund, FMG follows in the footsteps of other assets managers that have moved to take advantage of Malta’s regulatory structure, which was tweaked last year to better accommodate  multi-fund, or umbrella, structures.

The changes were seen at the time as being aimed at helping Malta to better compete with such other European fund centres as Luxembourg and Dublin.

Privately held, FMG was founded 23 years ago, and says it has more than 5,000 clients in Asia, Europe and South America, with assets under management of more than $200m.

Its headquarters are in Malta, with operations in Bermuda, Norway, Sweden and Singapore.

Last month, FMG announced that it had named Joe Portelli to head up its Malta operations as managing director and chief investment officer, and said he would be among those who would be primarily responsible for overseeing the Comino umbrella fund.

At FMG, Portelli, whose most recent role was as an assistant portfolio manager with Liongate Capital Management in Malta,  takes on some of the duties formerly handled by Andrew Jameson, the company’s former CIO, who left the company earlier this year.

FMG has been a pioneer in funds investing in such emerging markets as Russia, India, China, the Middle East and sub-Sahara Africa.

In 2010, the company launched an Iraq fund, and April of this year it launched what it says is the first-ever domestic Mongolia fund, which invests exclusively in stocks listed on the Mongolian Stock Exchange. 

              Source: FMG