Baring Asset Management plans to launch the Baring European Opportunities Fund in the next few weeks, subject to regulatory approval.

The fund will be co-managed by Nick Williams and Colin Riddles and will seek out investment opportunities in European smaller companies, including firms based in the UK, and will be benchmarked against the MSCI Europe Smallcap Index.
The company says the managers will use a combination of top-down macroeconomic analysis together with a comprehensive, bottom-up stock selection process to seek out strong investment returns.
Barings says the European smaller caps sector is substantially under-researched compared to larger cap stocks, and, supported by Barings' in-house research team and analysts, the managers will focus on European companies with the ability to deliver positive earnings surprises.
Out of a potential investment universe of around 7,000 European companies, the Baring European Opportunities Fund is expected to hold about 100 individual holdings.
Nick Williams, head of the Small Cap Equities Team at Barings, has been manager of the highly rated Baring Europe Select Trust since 2004.
The fund, which has been awarded a '5 Year Long-Term' grading and a Gold grading from S&P Capital IQ1, invests primarily in European smaller companies - but not in the UK - and has ranked first quartile among its Morningstar peer group over the past three and five years and second quartile over 1 year2.
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Colin Riddles, who has just under 20 years' experience in the fund management industry, with a particular focus on UK small caps, is an investment manager in Barings' Small Cap Equity Team and has been working closely with Nick since 2010.
Mr Williams, Head of Small Cap Equities at Barings, said: "For a while now European equities have languished compared to other markets as investors have been cautious on the prospects for European economic growth. Despite this, exciting investment opportunities continued to be found in smaller companies. Recently there has been an improved sentiment towards European equities, and while we have seen gains in European and UK smaller companies we believe there remain interesting stock opportunities for us to identify."
The Baring European Opportunities Fund will be a UCITS Fund, domiciled in Ireland. The minimum investment for the retail share class is €3,500 with an annual management fee of 1.5%. A share class for institutional investors is also available.