Investing in high growth Asian frontier economies.

Asia Frontier Capital

Asia Frontier Capital Ltd. is a pioneering fund management company based in Hong Kong that specializes in investing in high growth Asian frontier economies by managing the AFC Asia Frontier Fund , AFC Iraq Fund and the AFC Vietnam Fund.

The AFC Asia Frontier Fund invests in public equities of Asian frontier countries that are seeing increasing consumption due to favorable demographic trends, rising incomes and high GDP growth. The fund invests in listed equities of companies that have their principal business activities in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The AFC Asia Frontier Fund is positioned to take advantage of the continuing economic shifts in these countries and offers high returns combined with significant diversification opportunities. This fund is directed by the founder and CEO of Asia Frontier Capital, Thomas Hugger, who has been investing in frontier markets across Asia and Africa for more than 20 years.

The AFC Iraq Fund was launched on the 26th June 2015 and aims to achieve long-term capital appreciation for investors by capturing value and growth potential in the post conflict high-growth & resource rich Iraq market. The fund emphasises long term investment horizon to truly capture the opportunity in Iraq. The fund's investable universe consists of locally listed companies that have their principal business activities in Iraq as well as foreign listed companies that have the majority of the business in Iraq as a whole including the prosperous Kurdish Region of Iraq (KRI). The AFC Iraq Fund offers access to investments in post conflict recovery potential of Iraq, including the KRI, and/or stability in its territory. The AFC Iraq Fund is managed by Asia Frontier Capital (Iraq) Limited, Cayman Islands under the executive leadership team of Thomas Hugger (CEO & Fund Manager) and Ahmed Tabaqchali (CIO) who have more than 47 years of investment experience as well as an extensive background covering global, emerging, frontier and MENA markets.

The AFC Vietnam Fund invests exclusively in listed Vietnamese equities to capture value in growth companies with a focus on the small to medium size companies. This market segment offers a unique investment opportunity as the valuation gap between large- and small-cap stocks in Vietnam is presently much wider than in comparable neighboring markets and the valuations are significantly depressed versus their regional peers. The fund adopts a fundamental-quantitative approach and employs an in-house earnings model to identify attractive companies where we see high growth opportunities. In conjunction with targeting the maximum upside potential the portfolio has been structured to mitigate corporate government and liquidity risks. The fund invests in a diversified portfolio of 70-90 attractively valued companies to carefully control concentration risk.  This approach allows the fund to sell, or buy, positions without having a significant market impact. The fund is directed under the executive leadership of Thomas Hugger and Andreas Vogelsanger who have more than 50 years combined experience managing investments in frontier markets, Asia and around the world.

For more information about the fund, management team and investment strategy please contact us at info@asiafrontiercapital.com.

Marketing Director, Asia Frontier Capital

Marketing Director

Cross Asset Strategy

Multiple Countries / Cross Asset Strategy

<ul><li>May saw the final announcement for the long-delayed rights offering of Uzbekistan’s largest steel company, Uzmetkombinat (TSE:UZMK), as well as continued broad buying in the stock market, which led the May 2023 fund NAV to rise to an estimated USD 1,804 (+1.6%) or +80.4% since inception on 29th March 2019.</li><li>While historical precedent in Uzbekistan’s capital markets has been for state-owned enterprises (“SOEs”) to increase equity capital by selling all new shares to the government at par value, thereby drastically diluting minority investors, since Uzbekistan back in 2018 “re-opened to the world”, this has become a figure largely relegated to the past.</li><li>In recent years, SOEs in financial services, consumer goods, and the industrial sectors have been providing pre-emptive rights for minority investors, which is a very basic, but nonetheless positive development in Uzbekistan’s capital markets development as it reinforces the governments focus on improving minority shareholder rights.</li></ul>

May saw the final announcement for the long-delayed rights offering of Uzbekistan’s largest steel company, Uzmetkombinat (TSE:UZMK), as well as continued broad buying in the stock market, which led the May 2023 fund NAV to rise to an estimated USD 1,804 (+1.6%) or +80.4% since inception on 29th March 2019.While historical precedent in Uzbekistan’s capital markets has been for state-owned enterprises (“SOEs”) to increase equity capital by selling all new shares to the government at par value, thereby drastically diluting minority investors, since Uzbekistan back in 2018 “re-opened to the world”, this has become a figure largely relegated to the past.In recent years, SOEs in financial services, consumer goods, and the industrial sectors have been providing pre-emptive rights for minority investors, which is a very basic, but nonetheless positive development in Uzbekistan’s capital markets development as it reinforces the governments focus on improving minority shareholder rights.

AFC Uzbekistan Fund May 2023 Update: Uzmetkombinat Advances Rights Offering