Fund Manager Optimistic About Venezuela

Despite common belief, Diego Marynberg, the manager of a Latin American fund with the best performance this year, believes that there is investment opportunity in Venezuela, according to Bloomberg News.

The Virgin Islands-based $90 million Geo Equity Opportunities Fund is up 31% so far this year. The success of this fund can be attributed to the fact that 90% of its funds are invested in Venezuelan companies and the remaining 10% is in cash.

But many fund managers have seem Venezuela as a dangerous place to invest, due to political turmoil. "There is indeed a political risk, but the discount the market is charging for that is just too high," Marynberg said. "At the end of the day, Venezuela is the richest country in Latin America."

Gilberto Nagai, fund manager at ABN AMRO Holding, says that Marynberg's risk is not one that he is willing to take. "Things are good in Venezuela just because of the price of oil," he said. "Although we don't have indications that oil prices will drop, it's too dicey to depend on only one argument. It's not worth the risk."

Marynberg is convinced that as long as oil prices stay at the level they are at now, it is impossible to go wrong.