Fund Aims to Benefit from Spending Increase in Developing Nations

PIMCO launched the PIMCO Emerging Markets and Infrastructure Bond Fund.

The fund seeks to capitalize on the expected sharp increase in spending by developing nations on energy, transportation, water and waste treatment, telecommunications, public housing and development banks, a press release said. The portfolio manager of the fund is Brigitte Posch, an executive vice president at the firm.

Emerging market (EM) governments around the world are targeting infrastructure investments as critical foundations for future growth, with more than $1 trillion of projects committed to or underway. Bonds that finance these projects typically offer attractive yields, often with lower volatility than seen in some other credit opportunities, PIMCO explained. Additionally, the high priority governments are giving to infrastructure may help to mitigate the credit risk of such investments, which in turn might limit correlations with emerging equity markets.

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“Emerging markets are capturing a bigger slice of global growth thanks to their ongoing economic development and improving creditworthiness, and we believe that national infrastructure is a strategically important area of opportunity in the sector,” said Posch, in the announcement.

Institutional shares of the PIMCO Emerging Markets and Infrastructure Bond Fund will trade with the ticker PEMIX.


More information is available at www.pimco-funds.com.

 

AIG Delisted from NYSE—Not!

As if American International Group (AIG) hasn't been picked on enough, late yesterday the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) posted a notice of suspension and delisting for AIG on its Web site—accidentally.

A news report on MSN Money said AIG did not meet the standards for delisting, so it was de-delisted on Thursday when the NYSE issued an apology. The exchange typically issues delisting or suspension notices when a company’s stock falls below $1 a share or its market capitalization drops below $25 million, and it has eased those rules amid the recession as some companies that were once in good economic condition saw their share prices plunge.

“AIG is not subject to suspension and delisting, and was not responsible for the error,” the NYSE statement said, according to the news report. “The NYSE regrets the error.”

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AIG spokeswoman Christina Pretto told Bloomberg News the exchange “had a systems error.” The posting was removed when it was discovered.

The federal government owns about 80% of AIG after it bailed out the insurance giant in September of last year. According to MSN Money, AIG has received $182.5 billion in loans from the government.

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