The Roar of the Tiger

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The Asian growth power house

Monday, May 16th 2005, 10:44AM

Asia houses an enormous population and developing nations like China and India are industrialising at a good pace.

Companies have giant home markets on their door steps and a growing mass of wealthier consumers. Economic growth is healthy and looks sustainable. Export markets are thriving and companies are trying to become more than low cost manufacturers.

Many are attempting to master the skills of marketing and branding, which would project them into the global market. And to top it off, P/Es look better value than the higher multiples of the likes of the US.

It’s this kind of positive environment which is making Asia start to stand out.

The demographics, the industrialisation and the rub off benefits for other Asian nations, all support a good long-term investment story.

Over time, Asia’s influence on world markets is likely to grow and with such forceful drivers behind that growth, now seems like a good time to ensure client portfolios are positioned to take advantage of what could be one of the most major periods of market change we will see in the next decade. Bear in mind, this is no short term story.

Asia will undoubtedly remain an area of more volatile returns. A smooth ride is a foreign concept in Asia, so clients need to hang on for the journey.

Capital protected investments are the ideal vehicle to achieve dual aims for clients. They open up Asia to a wide range of investors and they give clients the ‘stickability’ to stay invested for the duration.

The swings and bumps become a non issue when capital can be repaid at maturity.

TIGER Series 1 is the new capital protected Asia fund from Liontamer.

It gives 100% of the rise in sharemarket growth and a completely different risk profile to a traditional fund. TIGER Series 1 intentionally has higher weightings in India and China, the two big power houses of the region.

Thinking of Asia?
Consider this:

• 60% of the world’s population lives in Asia, that’s 3.9 billion people1
• China’s economy is growing at two and a half times the speed of the US economy and is now the world’s third largest trader2
• India is expected to have the largest population on the planet by 2050, increasing its current 1 billion people by 50%, while the rest of the world grows at a rate of 4%1
• 20 million Chinese a year are moving from the countryside to the cities. That’s expected to continue until 20103
• In the developing nations a rising middle class with rising incomes now have cars, entertainment, white ware, and houses on their shopping lists
• Exports are driving wealth, with other Asian countries moving their bases to countries like China who have become a re-export platform · Asian companies are buying up Western expertise (Shanghai Motor Corp getting the Rover blue print and Levono buying IBMs personal computer business).

We’ve already seen the potential with the likes of Korea’s Samsung or Hyundai. Key facts in brief:

Fund name: TIGER Series 1
Term: 5 years
Minimum investment: $5,000
Basket of countries: 25% China, 25% India, 12.5% each into Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan
Capital protection: fully capital protected at maturity (less any entry fee charged). The fund buys fully protected notes issued by Barclays Bank PLC (Standard & Poor’s AA credit rating).
Early exit: quarterly, but capital protection does not apply. You may get back less than invested as well as incur an exit fee.
Growth: 100%† of the growth in a basket of six Asian countries
Annual return: 0.05% p.a.
Early maturity feature: if the fund experiences exceptional performance
Currency: New Zealand dollars (your capital and returns are not exposed to currency fluctuations)

This is only a brief description of the key facts; full details are available in the Investment Statement. Neither the Note Issuer (Barclays Bank PLC) nor any other entity guarantee the repayment of units nor any returns on the units, or accept any other liabilities to unit holders.

† Growth is averaged in the final year.
1 Population Reference Bureau www.prb.org (2004).
2 Reported by China Daily (11 Jan 2005). 3 Reported by The Standard, China’s business newspaper (1 April 2005)

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