Frontier markets are the emerging markets of just a few years ago.
While investors of all stripes have poured into emerging markets raising expectations for returns,
On Tuesday, Northern Trust's asset management arm, Northern Trust Global Investments, launched a Frontier Markets index fund for institutional investors with exposure to under-represented regions such as Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as well as a Asia and the Americas.
“Sophisticated institutional investors understand the need for diversified international and emerging markets exposure,” said Bob Browne, Chief Investment Officer of NTGI, in a press release. “Our new index fund offers investors the opportunity to expand their asset allocation beyond developed and emerging markets to the next 'frontier' of capital investment in a highly disciplined and risk managed framework.”
The NTGI fund is benchmarked to the S&P Frontier Extended 150 Index and takes a diversified approach to the sub-asset class of emerging markets, Northern Trust said. The fund is offered to institutional investors in a collective trust fund structure to provide enhanced transparency, trading efficiency and institutional pricing for investors.
Northern Trust has more than $250 billion invested in index strategies.