Insparo Asset Management has stepped up the marketing and investment strategy of its Insparo Africa & Middle East Fund with the appointment of Jamie Allsopp.
As well as contributing to the research and investment decisions of the fund, Allsopp (pictured) will primarily be responsible for marketing the fund in Insparo’s target markets.
He will use the experience gained from launching, managing and marketing a previous Africa targeted fund to build Insparo’s profile among new investors.
Allsopp has a strong background in fund management and African markets, garnered during eight years with New Star Asset Management. He joined New Star in 2001 as an equity analyst. Over the next five years, he served as portfolio manager to two of New Star’s high profile funds.
In 2007, Allsopp launched the New Star Heart of Africa Fund, which invested in Sub Saharan equities.
Allsopp’s appointment is the latest step in Insparo’s efforts to ramp up the marketing of the fund. The firm recently announced plans to increase the scope of the fund’s marketing to target investors in the US, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East.
Mohammed Hanif, chief investment officer at Insparo, says: “Jamie is a very significant hire for the firm. His experience of managing and capital raising for a major African-focussed fund positions him perfectly for the role we’re asking him to take on. By hiring a specialist of the calibre of Jamie, who also has hands on fund management experience, we believe we are able to provide our current and future investors with a superior and well rounded service that we feel is appropriate for a frontier market product.”
The Insparo Africa and Middle East Fund currently has USD160m of assets under management. Investors include IPGL, a private holding company in which Michael Spencer, chief executive of Icap, together with his wife and family trusts, are majority shareholders; and South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth’s Here Be Dragons. It targets traditional hedge fund and institutional investors such as funds of hedge funds, private banks, family offices, HNWIs and pension funds.
