The fund will use a long/short strategy to seek to generate a positive absolute return regardless of market conditions.
Vecht and Wigan must invest at least 70% of the fund’s assets in equities and equity-related securities and the same percentage of assets must be domiciled in or generating the majority of their economic activity in emerging markets.
The fund will hold between 40 and 70 stocks at any one time.
Vecht is head of BlackRock’s emerging markets specialist team and manages the firm’s Emerging Frontiers and Emerging Europe funds as well as the BlackRock Frontiers Investment Trust and the London Stock Exchange listed Eastern European Trust.
He has been with the firm since 2000 when he started in the global emerging markets team at Merrill Lynch Investment Management, which was subsequently acquired by BlackRock.
Co-manager Wigan joined BlackRock in 2009 from 3G Capital where his duties included devising fund macro strategy and stock investing in Europe. Prior to that he worked for Goldman Sachs and was responsible for macro investing within the Principles Strategies Group.
The new fund’s benchmark is three-month US dollar Libor and its base currency is US dollar, although it is available in euro and US dollar share classes.
Alex Hoctor-Duncan, head of EMEA retail at BlackRock, said: “The BSF Emerging Markets Absolute Return Fund is designed for investors seeking positive absolute returns irrespective of market conditions.
“This is achieved through a portfolio of long and short EM equity exposures, while delivering low volatility. BlackRock’s EM specialist team has a strong record in this area and we are pleased to be able to offer our clients the opportunity to access these strategies in a Ucits structure.”
