Korea widens its horizon
From The Wall Street Journal
South Koreans have traditionally kept their money at home, believing that investing overseas is inherently risky. In an effort to change that, the government is organizing a $400 million program to encourage investment in foreign funds. Specifically, the Korea Development Bank will select four funds proposed by foreign asset-management companies, each of whom will partner with a local company. The government will seed each fund with about $20 million. The goal is for each fund to raise an additional $80 million from retail and institutional investors. The new funds will receive favorable tax rates now offered only for funds investing domestically. For foreign fund companies, it's a chance to grab a larger share of the $250 billion Korean fund market. A second goal of the plan is to weaken the Korean won.

Oops!
From The Street.com
Last Friday, Janus issued a press release announcing that the white-hot Global Technology fund would close to new investors the following Tuesday. But in reality, the fund closed to new investors that day. The extended Tuesday deadline applied only to those who already owned or at least requested information about a Janus fund. That left many investors out in the cold when they tried to buy shares at what they thought was the last minute. "We were not as clear as we should have been in writing that announcement," admits Shelley Grice, a Janus spokeswoman.  

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