Ben Aris in berlin -

Swedish-based investment company announced on Monday, October 8 it will list a new company in Stockholm in the the near future, creating the first listed company to give investors broad exposure to the investment opportunities in emerging Europe.

The Swedish-registered company will be called East Capital Explorer AB and have its shares listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange. The company's mandate is to invest into the "unique opportunities" in Eastern Europe and pull in a broader base of investors.

There are only a handful of listed funds that offer portfolio investors exposure to the fast moving action in emerging Europe, but all of those that have gone to market so far are specialists funds of one sort or another. Amongst the very first listed funds with exposure to Eastern Europe was Eastern Property Holdings, which is listed in Switzerland and invests into Russian real estate. More recently, Prosperity Capital Management listed the Voskhod Fund last year that is a play on the Russian restructuring story. And at the start of this year, Visor Capital listed a fund on London's Alternative Investment Market that is investing in Central Asia.

However, East Capital's new company will initially target high growth sectors, mostly in the consumer sector, over an extremely broad geographical basis. The managers have already identified projects in Russia and the other CIS countries, the Balkans, the Baltic states, Central Asia and Central Europe.

Following the firm's strategy in their other eight funds, East Capital Explorer will raise money to make investments in both listed companies as well as making private equity investments in "semi-public" shares, targeting the fast growing sectors in the local economies through out the region.

"East Capital Explorer will provide unique access to investments in interesting companies, not otherwise accessible via the local stock exchanges in Eastern Europe. This opportunity has until today been reserved for a very limited number of specialized investors," Peter Elam Hakansson, chairman of East Capital, said in a statement.

Set up in 1997 specifically to target investment opportunities in Eastern Europe, East Capital has been hugely successful and today has about $7bn under management, making it the biggest of the handful of funds that have targeted emerging Europe.

Carnegie Investment Bank, Citigroup Global Markets and Morgan Stanley will act as joint global coordinators in connection with the intended offering.

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