Billionaire investor Michael Lee Chin is to establish a multi-billion US-dollar investment fund for the Caribbean region, with the aim of taking positions in both new companies and start-ups.

Michael Lee Chin (left) and Kris Astaphan

The fund is expected to be launched by the second quarter of 2005, Kris Astaphan, deputy chairman of Lee Chin's Canadian funds management company AIC, confirmed yesterday.

Though he declined to give the specific size of the fund, Astaphan also confirmed that billions of US dollars were being targeted for its flotation.
Astaphan told the Business Observer that AIC - of which Lee Chin is chairman and a 95 per cent shareholder - would use the investment fund for investment in principally four areas.

"There are four or five areas of opportunity," he said, "tourism, the financial services, infrastructure, media/ communications, and potentially telecommunications."

Lee Chin, who owns nearly 80 per cent of National Commercial Bank, began last year to acquire several assets in Jamaica, including major portfolio positions in companies that fall within the industries identified by Astaphan.

Those acquisitions done mainly from the profits generated by NCB raised speculation that the savvy businessman was creating a portfolio that would form the kernel of a Caribbean-wide mutual fund or some form of investment vehicle.

Among those companies: 44 per cent of Kingston Wharves, and millions of shares in Cable & Wireless, two major infrastructure companies; a sizeable portion of Radio Jamaica; millions of shares in Red Stripe, and an assortment of real estate, both tourism and non-tourism.

Business Observer sources say that Lee Chin has been holding discussions with several international financial institutions, high net worth individuals within the region, as well as some Caribbean governments about their participation in the fund.
Astaphan said the fund would consider investments in "both new and existing projects" and would not be restricted to Jamaica.

The Business Observer was unable to determine where the management firm for the fund would be based.

Earlier this week, AIC for the first time began publicly disclosing in Jamaica the asset value of its funds, though there was not enough information to assess the actual performance of the various funds.

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