I am pleased to share with you our third monthly update since our first two equity funds were launched in March. Thinking back, it is has been an activity packed quarter for the Silk Invest team!
We continue to do the rounds in Europe and the Middle East to tell our story and to explain to investors, the great investment opportunity we represent. We made our first foray into the U.S. We met with some interesting potential investors and possible distribution partners.
With regards to investments, we were careful in building up the portfolio and although we missed some of the upside during April due to the fact that we weren’t fully invested, we are happy to report that our approach has proven to work well during the past few weeks as our asset allocation and stock selection captured most of the upside but without the high volatility that has been experienced by the market.
During the second quarter, we have added three more members to our investment team. John Bates joined us as Head of Fixed Income, based in London. In Cairo, Mohammed Bahaa Abdeen now supports Hesam Saad as investment analyst. Fially, Gouhou Danon has been appointed as Trading Manager, Gouhou is based in London. We are proud to be able to attract such energetic and talented individuals to our team!
We are also happy to report that we have gained the trust of a handful of new investors into the funds. We are optimistic on further increasing this number during the next few weeks as more and more people are starting to understand our investment strategy and the potential of the companies that we have selected for our portfolios.
I hope you can take the time to have a look at our monthly updates which can be accessed by clicking on the links below. The monthly reports not only offer an overview of our portfolios but also aim to provide insight into what is going on in our markets of focus.
With regards to Africa, the strong performance of our key markets in the first half would typically have resulted in some period end window dressing. The fact that this did not happen, apart from Nigeria, gives us confidence that the focus is now increasingly on fundamentals.
In the Sub Saharan Region: The Kenya and Mauritius markets were the best performing markets during the period. We have avoided exposure to Ghana which continues to struggle. Botswana surprisingly started to perform again as investor confidence seems to be improving. We anticipate a better performance from these markets in the second half of the year as we see investor confidence returning to the markets.
In the Maghreb Region, the markets covered in our fund have posted mixed performances at the end of the first semester of 2009, with Tunisia flying high as one of the best performing markets. Morocco still seems to be preparing for take-off, something we expect may happen in the fourth quarter of 2009 on the back of continued strong economic growth and support from local institutional investors.
With regards to the MENA region, governments confirmed both their eagerness and ability to support their economies. Despite some recent volatility, the overall investment climate began to show more strength on almost every sector except for Tourism. Recent M&A news has proven to be an eye-opener on new market multiples. In addition, we have witnessed the return of foreign investors in these markets as they put money to work, especially during market dips.
For more information take a look at our monthly reports.
We look forward to keeping you updated.
Kind regards
Baldwin
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