Aberdeen Frontier Markets Investment Company Limited (AIM: AFMC), a UK AIM-listed closed-end investment company, has confirmed that a shareholder vote on voluntary de-listing and subsequent liquidation will take place on Tuesday 18th August 2020.

The cancellation of the company’s shares from the UK AIM market requires the approval of at least 7% of the votes cast by shareholders at the extraordinary general meeting (EGM). The initial announcement of proposed cancellation of shares was made at the beginning of July this year.

The expected timetable of principle events can be found below (note: times are BST):

Task	Date
Latest time and date for receipt of the Forms of Direction	10am on 7th August 2020
Latest time and date for receipt of the Forms of Proxy	10am on 14th August 2020
EGM record time for entitled parties	6pm on 14th August 2020
Expected final trading day on AIM	17th August 2020
Suspension of Company’s Ordinary Share on AIM	7:30am on 17th August 2020
EGM	10am on 18th August 2020
Announcement of results of EGM	18th August 2020
Appointment of Joint Liquidators	18th August 2020
Expected time and date of Cancellation	7am on 19th August 2020

If there are any changes to the above dates and/or times, then the revised dates and/or times will be notified to shareholders by announcement through a Regulatory Information Service.

The expected final day of trading on AIM is 17th August 2020, with the cancellation expected on 19th August 2020, the next working day after the results of the EGM are announced. The decision to cease activity on the market is due to underperformance against the MSCI Frontier Markets Index benchmark over a two-year period, the current size of the investment trust (around £30m AUM) and the operational costs of running it.

Aberdeen have also said that underperformance of the investment trust was down to asset allocation, primarily its relatively underweight positions in Kuwait and Bahrain stocks (missing out on the MSCI upgrade of the former) and also the poor performances of Argentina and Lebanon, with the former narrowly retaining its Emerging Market status with MSCI (despite being removed from FTSE Frontier Market Indexes) and the latter being warned of its position in the MSCI Frontier Markets Index due to the ongoing capital controls in place during the ongoing economic crisis.

As of 17th July 2020, Aberdeen Frontier Markets is down almost 11% year-to-date, compared to the MSCI Frontier Markets Index benchmark, which is down just under 18% since the beginning of the year.