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Strategies & Market Trends : Russia/Templeton Russia Fund (TRF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: peter michaelson who wrote (65)	3/3/1998 6:29:00 PM
From: Thomas Haegin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 94

Hi Peter, nice to see you here! Well, TRF is the most established one, but currently selling at a premium. RNE is investing in other Eastern European besides Russia as well, so Russia is only one part of the portfolio; RNE is not a pure Russian play as TRF or Lex. Troika. Both RNE and TRF are closed-end funds traded on the NYSE. Troika is an open-ended fund, distributed directly from Lexington. The advantage of Troika is that you can purchase redeem shares always at NAV. The disadvantage is maybe that trading is not as convenient as with TRF and RNE. I don't know if Troika is distributed/tradable at Ch.Schwab, though. Troika is all Russian, like TRF. As far as I know the manager who built the performance record of Troika left in '97 for reasons I don't know. Maybe better prospects elsewhere. This you may wish to verify before considering Troika. Portfoilo-wise, the difference between TRF and Troika are rather marginal: Both concentrate heavily on "Blue Chips" like the Oils and the Electricity and Phone Utilities and a few Industrials. I would hesitate to buy TRF with such a large premium. If it is convenient and possible for you to buy, check out Troika. Check the expense ratios, check also if you must pay performance fees. Verify about the manager (He had assistants though. I think one of them is now the main manager). The expense ratio at TRF were acceptable. RNE is OK, if you want more than only Russian exposure. However, I "know" Russia only, and therefore want to invest only there. Other possibilities are to buy two blue chip ADRs like LUKoil and UES (Unified Electric Systems) or Mosenergo. Gazprom is too much politics for my taste. LUKoil also has 2 Euro-convertible Bonds outstanding. As you know, I own Inkombank. Hope this helps, (still need to revisit Asia...) Thomas