Crosby Asset Management has launched two funds in Hong Kong, one that is already investing in listed medium-sized Chinese companies and another that will invest in Asian companies of a similar profile.
The China Vision fund - an open-ended fund investing in B shares, H shares and red chips - has been available to European investors since June 1994. Since its inception, it has earned a 14.7 per cent return, compared with a 13 per cent drop in the Peregrine Greater China Index.
Despite the fund's performance, Crosby's managing director Nigel Webber said investments in China had become a hard sell in Europe.
'For the past two years . . . people just didn't want to hear about China, because they all invested in China at the top of the 1993 bubble and they were all sitting around holding big losses,' he said.
Now, with the European and United States stock markets at record highs, investors could be expected to turn their sights to Asia's 'quite cheap' markets.
Mr Webber said there was about US$11 million invested in the fund, and he hoped to see this figure double in six months.
