UK-based Baring Asset Management is launching a new fund targeting the Middle East and North Africa at a time when previously strict rules governing foreign investment and ownership in many of these markets are being relaxed.

Barings, which has £28.9bn (€31.8bn) under management and almost half of this figure, £12.5bn, invested in emerging markets, will open its Baring Mena fund to new investors on March 29, according to a presentation by the group in London yesterday.