Objective Change: Fidelity Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa Fund
We have been informed by the Fidelity board of Directors that the Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa Fund will change its investment objective from 8 July 2013.
These changes will provide investors with the potential to benefit from a more diverse range of investment opportunities in the EMEA region.
What are the changes?
The change will remove the current restriction of investing primarily in the country constituent index, which is very narrow and increasingly unrepresentative of the EMEA region. The MSCI EM Europe, Middle East and Africa Index (the country constituent index) currently comprises only eight countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa) instead of the wider geographic EMEA area.
Rapid development of other EMEA markets, such as Nigeria, in recent years has meant that to cover this region in a more representative way it is necessary to access more markets. The Directors therefore propose to adjust the funds objective so that it is more representative of the region, the fund name and investor expectations.
The investment objective will be amended on 8 July 2013 and all the costs of this change will be met by Fidelity. The fund will continue to be managed by Nick Price. This change will have no effect on the number of shares held in the fund and it is anticipated that the risk profile will remain unchanged.
You can read the existing and the revised investment objectives of the Fidelity Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa Fund below:
Existing investment objective:
The fund aims to generate long-term capital growth through investing in securities of companies having their head office or exercising a predominant part of their activity in less developed countries in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe (including Russia), Middle East and Africa that are considered as emerging markets according to the MSCI EM Europe, Middle East and Africa Index.
Revised investment objective:
The fund aims to generate long-term capital growth through investing primarily in securities of companies having their head office or exercising a predominant part of their activity in less developed countries in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe (including Russia), Middle East and Africa that are considered as emerging markets according to the MSCI EM Europe, Middle East and Africa Index.
Letters have been issued to affected policyholders or their appointed investment adviser, advising of the change. A copy has been sent to their servicing adviser for information. The fund managers notification and sample letters can be viewed opposite.