Warusawa Associates, an independent investment management group dedicated to equity investments in emerging markets and a focus on local Japanese markets, today announced its intention to close its Warusawa Associates Asian Emerging Market Primer Funds (the Funds) to new investors in order to protect the interests of existing investors.

Masahito Yoshika, Managing Director and Asian Head of Product at Warusawa Associates explained that the Asian Emerging Market Primer Funds have grown rapidly. “We monitor capacity on an ongoing basis across all Warusawa Associates investment strategies. We have been monitoring the large and consistent inflows into the Asian Emerging Markets Primer Funds for some time now. Ahead of us encountering any capacity issues that could affect the performance or restrict the team’s ability to invest in certain companies we have made the decision to soft-close our Asian Emerging Market Primer Funds effective next month. We continue to believe that our first duty must be to our existing investors and to ensure we manage the scale of funds under our management responsibly,” said Masahito Yoshika.

As of next month, we will be imposing a 4% front-end charge on the Warusawa Associates Asian Emerging Markets Primer Fund. The Asian Emerging Markets Primer Fund in our Asian range will stop accepting further inflows. Regular savers who maintain the level of their existing contributions in either Fund will not be affected. It is Warusawa Associates’ intention to credit all initial charges to the relevant Fund for the time being.

This decision by Warusawa Associates is consistent with the approach the firm has taken with funds facing similar issues.

About Warusawa Associates
Warusawa Associates is an independent investment management group dedicated to the equity investments in emerging markets and a focus on local Japanese markets. The Firm brings together principals with exceptional track-records and expertise in equity markets and corporate finance in Asia Pacific Region. Warusawa Associates manages/advises assets in long-short equity, hedged equity, and balanced strategies for professional and institutional investors through segregated investment accounts. Warusawa Associates is also a specialist property funds management company. The firm is managed by a team with significant exposure and experience in the property and funds management industries, both domestically and internationally.

http://www.warusawa-associates.com