Change of benchmark index
F&C Latin American Inv Trust PLC
22 December 2003
The Board of the F&C Latin American Investment Trust PLC announces that the
benchmark index that is used to measure the performance of the Company will,
with effect from 1 January 2004, be the MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America
Gross Index (US$) (the 'MSCI Index'). In the interim report, the Board announced
that it was reviewing the existing benchmark, the IFCG Latin America US$ Total
Return Index (the 'IFCG Index'), because of problems related to the structure
and investibility of this index. The Company has found it very hard, and in some
cases impossible, to buy many of the smaller constituents in the IFCG Index.
This problem has arisen because the index provider does not fully take liquidity
into account in the construction of its constituents. We have discussed this
matter with a large number of shareholders and the majority of shareholders are
happy for the Company to move to the MSCI Index, which is rapidly becoming the
industry standard benchmark. The MSCI Index is a total return index, which is
calculated on a daily basis, assumes dividends are reinvested gross of any taxes
and takes liquidity fully into account in the determination of its constituents.
The MSCI Index currently has 99 constituents spread between seven countries,
compared to the IFCG Index which currently has 208 constituents spread between
the same seven countries. One of the key geographical differences is that the
Andean markets represent a materially smaller amount of the MSCI Index than the
IFCG Index because of liquidity issues.
This information is provided by RNS
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