Issue of Rights to Reclassify Participating Shares

Genesis Emerging Markets Fund Ld 13 January 2000 GENESIS EMERGING MARKETS FUND LIMITED ISSUE OF RIGHTS TO RECLASSIFY PARTICIPATING SHARES The Board announces proposals which will entitle Participating Shareholders to realise up to 50% of their investment in the Company. The proposals do not in any way reflect a lack of confidence in the emerging markets, which continue, in the opinion of the Directors and the Manager, to offer prospects for capital growth, but follow a request from a fund management group that has a substantial holding of Participating Shares and wishes to realise this holding at a price closer to the net asset value than is currently available in the secondary market. The group wishes to manage the funds represented by that holding within the group. The Directors have considered how best to accommodate the fund management group while at the same time protecting the interests of investors who wish to continue to hold Participating Shares. As a result the realisation has been structured by way of an issue of Rights entitling the holder to apply to reclassify Participating Shares into a new class of Realisation Shares, which will then be redeemed by the Company. The Rights will be issued to Participating Shareholders on the basis of the right to apply to reclassify one Participating Share for every two Participating Shares held and will be transferable. The Board, after consultation with their advisers, consider that the proposals represent a compromise that allows Participating Shareholders who so wish to have the opportunity to realise some or all of their holding and, at the same time, allows the Company to retain sufficient assets to permit the continuation of a satisfactory secondary market in Participating Shares. Participating Shareholders who wish to retain more than 50% of their holding will also have the potential opportunity to benefit from a sale of their Rights. The proposals If the proposals are approved at the Extraordinary General Meeting referred to below, the Company will issue each Participating Shareholder with the right to apply to reclassify up to 50% of his holding of Participating Shares into Realisation Shares which will then be redeemed. The reclassification is to take place on Monday, 6th March, 2000 (the 'Effective Date'). On the Effective Date, each asset of the Company will be divided into two parts, in the same ratio as the number of continuing Participating Shares bears to the number of reclassified Realisation Shares; the second part will be allocated to the Realisation Share Portfolio, while the first part will be allocated to the Participating Share Portfolio which will continue to be managed with the same investment objectives and strategy as at present. The assets allocated to the Realisation Share Portfolio will then be realised. The intention is that, within approximately 12 weeks of the Effective Date, substantially all of the assets allocated to the Realisation Share Portfolio will have been realised and the proceeds used, after paying the liabilities attributable to the Portfolio, to fund cash payments to Realisation Shareholders. The exact timing, form and size of payments to Realisation Shareholders is uncertain as it depends on the speed and prices at which the assets in the Realisation Share Portfolio can be sold. Some of the holdings of the Company are in unquoted securities or in companies whose shares trade only sporadically and realisation of these investments may take time to achieve, with realisation only possible at prices less than the prices quoted for the holdings on the relevant stock exchange or the values used to calculate the Net Asset Value of the Company. If it does not prove possible to sell these investments for a price the Directors consider reasonable in the short to medium term, the Directors will consider alternative means of achieving realisation so that redemption and cancellation of the Realisation Shares can be completed. The Rights will be issued in transferable form and will be listed on the London Stock Exchange. This will enable a Participating Shareholder who wishes to retain more than 50% of his existing holding of Participating Shares to sell some or all of his Rights. The price at which Rights can be sold will depend on market conditions, but the Directors consider that a listing on the London Stock Exchange and the fact that Warburg Dillon Read has agreed to make a market in the Rights should permit the development of a satisfactory secondary market. Exercise of Rights The Rights will be issued in the form of Rights Letters which will be despatched to persons appearing on the register of Participating Shareholders on 4th February, 2000 (the 'Record Date'). The procedures necessary for the exercise and for the sale of Rights will be described in the appendix to the Rights Letter. Any Rights not exercised by 3.00 p.m. on 25th February, 2000 will be transferred to Warburg Dillon Read, which has undertaken to use reasonable endeavours to sell these Rights at the best price reasonably available. The proceeds of sale (after deduction of the expenses of procuring the purchasers) will be distributed in sterling pro rata amongst the Participating Shareholders to whom the relevant Rights were originally issued except that amounts of less than £5.00 will be retained for the benefit of the Company. Any Rights that are not exercised prior to the Effective Date will lapse. Expenses The costs associated with the implementation of the Issue, which are not expected to exceed US$2.5 million, will be met from the cash and proceeds of realisation of the assets allocated to the Realisation Share Portfolio. Expenses of the Company directly attributable to a particular Portfolio, for example the costs of realisation of assets in the Realisation Share Portfolio, will be met from the assets allocated to that Portfolio. Expenses of the Company not directly attributable to one of the two Portfolios will be met from both Portfolios pro rata to the number of shares in issue in each class. Realisation Shares Distributions will be made to Realisation Shareholders using the net proceeds of sale of the assets allocated to the Realisation Share Portfolio. The exact time, form and amount of distributions will be at the discretion of the Directors. It is, however, anticipated that substantially all of the assets allocated to the Portfolio will have been realised, and the net proceeds used to fund distributions, within 12 weeks of the Effective Date. The Realisation Shares will be freely transferable and will be listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Company has undertaken to use its best endeavours to procure that the Realisation Shares will, in any event, be redeemed and cancelled within 12 months of the Effective Date. Proposed facility for the Company to purchase Participating Shares Your Directors also propose to seek the approval of Shareholders for the Company to establish a facility to repurchase up to 2,020,000 Participating Shares, representing a maximum of 14.98 per cent. of the Participating Shares in issue following the implementation of the Issue. The Board believes that the creation of this facility may assist in maintaining any narrowing of the discount at which the Participating Shares trade as a result of the Issue. The Directors are aware that some Participating Shareholders are concerned that the Company should not contract, in terms of number of Participating Shares in issue or gross assets, to an extent that materially and adversely affects either secondary market liquidity in the Participating Shares or the ability to benefit from the 'economies of scale' inherent in collective investment. Any decision by the Directors to repurchase Participating Shares will take these concerns fully into account. Repurchases of Participating Shares may be made by either a single purchase or a series of purchases, in each case with the aim of maximising the benefit to Participating Shareholders. Exercise of the facility will depend upon investment considerations and market conditions prevailing at the time. It should not be assumed that any repurchase of Participating Shares will necessarily take place. The repurchase of Participating Shares will normally be funded out of cash reserves held within the Participating Share Portfolio by the Company, but may, on occasions, be met from short-term borrowings. It is the Directors' intention that the funding of any repurchases will not result in any increase in the Company's long-term borrowings. The authority of the Directors to repurchase Participating Shares will last until the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held in 2000, but may be renewed. Extraordinary General Meeting The proposals require the amendment of the Articles of Association, to provide for the new class of Realisation Shares and to make a number of other changes. These amendments and the proposals as a whole require the approval of the Participating Shareholders and the appropriate resolutions will be proposed at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company which is being convened for 11.00 a.m. on Monday, 7th February, 2000, at Bermuda House, St. Julian's Avenue, St. Peter Port, Guernsey. ENQUIRIES Richard Carss Genesis Emerging Markets Fund Limited 0171 201 7200 Howard Myles Warburg Dillon Read 0171 568 2140
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