Events at the Vietnam Frontier Fund conjure up images of those unfortunates fighting for space on the last helicopters fleeing the US embassy in Saigon in the 1970s. The poorly performing fund recently offered to pacify shareholders by tendering to buy 572,000 shares from them at $7 each.

The rush for the exit was so great that shareholders offered to sell 2.4 million shares, an embarrassing two-thirds of the fund's entire capitalisation. As an analyst at HSBC mildly puts it: 'What will the fund do to appease remaining shareholders?'