Magna Asia Fund Launch

Charlemagne Capital Limited
13 June 2006


Tuesday 13 June 2006

               CHARLEMAGNE CAPITAL LAUNCHES MAGNA ASIA FUND WITH
                           US$25 MILLION COMMITMENTS

Charlemagne Capital, the specialist emerging markets equity investment
management group, today announces the launch of the Magna Asia Fund, which has
already received US$25 million of commitments.

The strategy of the Magna Asia Fund is to invest in a variety of Asian markets
including Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand and India. In line with
Charlemagne Capital's investment philosophy, the Magna Asia Fund employs the
same bottom-up approach to stock picking as in the eight other Magna sub-funds.
As at 1 June 2006, the Magna range had total assets under management ("AuM") of
US$1.05 billion. The investment objective of the Magna range is to deliver
outperformance of the relevant benchmark index for each sub-fund via active
management.

KC Reddy & Sangita Uberoi are the managers of the Magna Asia Fund and the Magna
India Fund, the latter of which is ranked number two out of 38 Indian funds,
year to date, according to Standard & Poors.

For the period 1 January 2006 - 31 May 2006, the Magna India Fund returned
+10.19% against the benchmark MSCI India Euro Index which declined 1.07% over the
same period.

Commenting on the launch of the Magna Asia Fund, Julian Mayo, Investment
Director, said:

"It is a good time to be investing in the Asian markets following the recent
correction and we see plenty of attractive opportunities across a range of
sectors using our strict bottom-up stock picking process."

Enquiries:

Charlemagne Capital                         Tel. [phone]
Julian Mayo, Investment Director, Charlemagne Capital

Smithfield Consultants                      Tel. [phone]
John Kiely
George Hudson

This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to
the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of the Charlemagne
Capital Group. These statements and forecasts involve risk and uncertainty
because they relate to events and depend upon circumstances that will occur in
the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results or
developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these
forward-looking statements and forecasts. Nothing in this announcement should be
construed as a profit forecast.

Notes to Editors:

Charlemagne Capital is a specialist emerging markets equity investment
management group. Charlemagne Capital Limited was admitted to the AIM market of
the London Stock Exchange on 4 April 2006.

Charlemagne's product range comprises mutual funds, hedge funds and
institutional and specialist fund products primarily covering GEMs, Eastern
Europe, Latin America and Asia. Charlemagne Capital employs a range of
investment strategies including: long only, long/short, structured products and
private equity. Charlemagne Capital's funds aim to exploit the inefficiencies in
the market via a strict bottom up approach and focused stock selection.

Magna funds (UCITS III funds): The Magna Umbrella Fund plc is a daily dealing
UCITS fund, consisting of nine geographically focused sub-funds with total AuM
of US$1.05 billion as at 1 June 2006. Originally launched as the Magna Europa
Fund in 1998, it was converted to a UCITS umbrella fund in April 2003.

The OCCO fund range is Charlemagne Capital's hedge fund range, consisting of the
OCCO Eastern European (which is closed), Global Emerging Markets, Asia and Latin
America funds (the latter launched in April 2005). All of the OCCO funds employ
a long/short equity strategy investing across global emerging markets with a
bottom up approach. The funds aim to produce consistent absolute & risk adjusted
performance by exploiting inefficiencies in the markets through both long &
short positions. The funds have a maximum standard deviation target of 12% p.a.
The OCCO Eastern European Fund was the first hedge fund which Charlemagne
Capital launched in December 2001. The fund was up 16.35% in 2005, with
volatility of 7.24%, and has had annualised returns of 17.31 % (in USD).

Through the strong long-term investment performance track record of its
principal funds, Charlemagne Capital has established itself as a market leader
in emerging markets investment management. Its performance has been recognised
through numerous awards and top rankings for its funds, including the 2005
Standard and Poor's 5-year best performing fund award in Austria, the 2006 Swiss
Lipper Leaders 5-year award winner for Emerging Markets Europe and an AAA-rating
by Standard & Poor's for its Magna Eastern European Fund (a sub-fund of Magna
Umbrella Fund Plc).


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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