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By Merieme Boutayeb. Research Analyst at Lipper. The views expressed are her own. The European fund industry is getting a second chance this week to improve the way it communicates with investors when selling its products. While the first effort became mired in legalese and complexity, the Key Investor Information Document, or KIID, should offer a golden opportunity to recoup some more of the trust lost during and after the financial crisis. Firms would do well to look past their misgivings and not waste it. The new requirements are part of the broader changes that come as part of UCITS IV regulations designed to further develop a single market in investment products. The KIID will replace the much-criticised Simplified Prospectus as the means to facilitate the understanding of neophyte investors. Published by ESMA (the European Securities and Markets Authority, the final KIID layout will be divided into five principal sections: objectives and investment policy; risk and reward profile; charges; past performance; practical information. A KIID will have to be prepared for each share class in a standardized two-page format. It is probable that the task will be arduous for those funds using deeply complex investment strategies which they are required to distil into simple terminology. But they will have to respect the rule (and might be afforded a bit of extra room) as regulators seek to ensure transparency and comparability between different funds. The KIID will also have to be available in all the languages of the countries where the share class is registered for sale, a requirement which goes beyond the demands of the Simplified Prospectus and which will result in additional costs.     According to Lipper data, there are about 50,000 UCITS share classes registered for sale in Europe. Taking into account the fact that every share class must have a KIID in each language of country of registration for sale, the number of documents to be produced would be more than 160,000 KIIDs by July 1, 2012. Share classes already in existence before July 1, 2011 have a deadline of one year to develop their KIID. Professionals from the sector estimate that the cost of a KIID would vary between 50 and 125 euros, assuming the release of a single version in the year. That means the overall production of KIIDs would cost between 8 million and 20 million euros, without taking into consideration changes that may involve the production of an updated KIID. In March, during a conference held by the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry, Schroders’ <SDR.L> managing director in Luxembourg, Noel Fessey, estimated that the KIID would cost twice as much as the simplified prospectus. According to industry publication FundWeb, he said that Schroders is planning to spend 1 million euros to produce a KIID for all its UCITS share classes, compared with 0.5 million euros spent on creating the simplified prospectus in 2005. RISK AND REWARD No fund manager likes to shell out cash, but the sums involved don’t appear that onerous in comparison to the costs spent annually by fund management companies to run their investment funds. However there are other factors around the KIID which will have an impact on the fund industry in Europe. The new section on a fund’s “risk and reward profile” provided in the KIID has been the most controversial requirement. This will strive to give an estimate of the risk incurred by an investor via the calculation of a standardised indicator, the SRRI (Synthetic Risk and Reward Profile). This indicator could well turn out to be decisive in individuals’ investment choice by allowing an easier comparison based on their risk appetite. It’s difficult to guess at the changes in purchasing behaviour that this might create, but fund management companies may well be led to develop their fund range through an appropriate breakdown of the different risk levels, in order to satisfy a wide range of investor profiles. The SRRI is also likely to make it easier to monitor the offerings of rival fund firms. The introduction of the KIID may also contribute to the trend towards consolidation and streamlining of fund ranges, which would serve to reduce the costs associated the production of KIIDs. They are likely to act as a further disincentive to the creation of multiple mutual funds because of the cost of producing several KIIDs, while fund companies will have an additional incentive to use mergers and transfers of assets where they manage several funds with similar risk profiles and strategies. At this week’s Fund Forum International in Monaco the organisers reported that one panel of experts believed fund management had overtaken banking as the most hated industry. A touch of paranoia there perhaps, but it is clear that despite much gnashing of teeth there remains a trust gap between fund companies and their clients. The KIID will clearly have a palpable impact for many groups in relation to cost, and uncertainties persist over how they manage complexity and what the eventual consequences might be. However, if done right, the KIID at least has the potential to help bridge that divide and firms should make sure it does just that.

At 55, he has lived a life of desperate poverty and survived Liberia’s 14 bloody years of conflict — a small miracle, but he wants more.”I hope my children or my grandchildren will have lights and electricity,” he says, pausing for a moment to hug one of his grandchildren as countless flies buzz around his shelter.”I’m sure by the time this man gets your age, he will live a better life than what I have lived.”Monrovia’s West Point slum, home to many of the West African state’s former child soldiers and the capital city’s worst crime, is a symbol for a nation thriving to move forward but facing obstacles unimaginable to most in the developed world.Mobo spent his entire life in West Point and mostly made a living from fishing. His compound is right by the beach — an unappealing strip of sand adorned by some battered fishing boats and covered in human excrement.A presidential election, in which newly named Nobel peace laureate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is seeking a second term against former U.N. diplomat Winston Tubman and ex-rebel Prince Johnson, has raised hopes of a turning point.An early vote count released on Thursday put Johnson-Sirleaf on 44.5 percent so far, well ahead of Tubman’s 26.5 percent but short of the overall majority needed to spare her from a November run-off against her nearest challenger. It could take another week or longer for the full results to emerge.One of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, Liberia still bears the unhealed wounds of a 1989-2003 civil war that killed nearly a quarter of a million people and destroyed virtually all of its infrastructure, leaving its four million people in a modern stone age.”MA ELLEN TRIED HER BEST”Eight years after the fighting, residents point to some modest gains — mainly that the peace has held and that the government of Johnson-Sirleaf is slowly bringing power, piped water, and paved roadways back to the crumbling and mould-blackened buildings of the seaside capital.”Development is a gradual process,” said Jackson Jargbah, a 29-year-old student in Monrovia.”Ma Ellen has tried her best, but more needs to be done, whoever wins this election,” he said, citing unchecked crime, rampant unemployment, and high food prices.The election will be a test of Johnson-Sirleaf’s record since becoming Africa’s first freely elected female head of state in 2005, and a gauge of future expectations as mining and energy companies plan billions of dollars of investments.If it can avoid the “resource curse” that has blighted many countries in Africa, revenues from Liberia’s vast iron ore deposits and offshore oil potential could help lift its people, who now survive on an average of less than $1 a day, out of grinding poverty.But the task for the next president remains huge and could be complicated by a likely withdrawal of the nearly 10,000 U.N. peacekeepers who have helped maintain security across the country since the end of the war.SINKING INTO THE SEALiberia was founded as Africa’s first republic in 1847 by freed American blacks who attempted to recreate the plantation South on African soil, building churches, wearing top hats and sometimes forcing indigenous tribes into labour on farms.Tensions between the Americo-Liberians and the indigenous population have eased since the war, although Johnson-Sirleaf often mentions her indigenous roots to avoid being painted as part of the traditional Americo-Liberian political elite.Near her party headquarters on the edge of one of Monrovia’s wealthiest areas, Sinkor, is a dramatic example of the problems facing Liberia’s leaders - an entire neighbourhood falling into the sea due to coastal erosion.”Coconut trees were around here. The flow started coming, coming, coming until finally tide come take some of the houses out around here,” Amos Gbomiah, 22, said in thick patois of the narrow band of sand between the roaring waves and his home, one of dozens torn apart to expose still-inhabited bedrooms.”What I want from the election is anyone who take over, especially Ellen or whoever, if she take over she must find areas and certify us for us to be there,” he said.Less than a block away, there is the contrast of rare wealth in a city of deprivation - quiet paved streets lined with high walls topped with barbed-wire and shattered glass, behind them private villas, embassies, NGO and company offices.A western-style restaurant, Sam’s BBQ, nearby caters to those who can afford $8 for a plate of chicken.Few Liberians have achieved anything close to middle-class status since the war - something reserved for the moment for the parallel economy propped up by aid groups and the United Nations peacekeeping mission.NEW LIBERIABut optimism is in healthy supply.”The new Liberia is coming,” said Lebanese businessman Khalil Azar, a manager of a computer and office supply store in the midst of the capital.Beever Communications Inc., selling high-end brand name products in a well-lit and air-conditioned space, is a rare sight in a city dominated by market traders hawking used, handmade, or stolen wares out of decrepit storefronts.”Things are not bad at all, especially from six, seven years ago, everything is better and better. And we are expecting more,” Azar said of his plans for two new shops.”People who were running away from the war, now people are coming back, from America from Liberia, anywhere from out of Liberia they are coming back now.”But perhaps the greatest hope can be found inside the offices of the National Oil Company of Liberia - a state-run entity that, to date has no oil to speak of and which leases its two floors from the Episcopal Church in the centre of town.”Within the next 12 months the prospect looks very good,” said NOC President Christopher Neyor said of drilling by U.S. firms Anadarko and Chevron and approaches by other oil majors like Exxon Mobil and Petrobras.”Natural resources can lift people out of poverty if they are managed well.”He said the NOC was preparing legislation on local hiring, transparency, royalties and state share so that Liberia can manage energy revenues and avoid the corruption and violence seen in other West African oil producers “long before we become a producer.”But he added the key to continued investment - including in the country’s rich iron ore deposits which have already drawn miners ArcelorMittal and BHP Billiton — will be for Liberia to remain peaceful.Voting in the Tuesday poll passed calmly, though observers have cautioned the results could be a flashpoint for street clashes — as happened following an election dispute in 2005. Voters seem keen to prove those fears wrong.”If they give us exactly what they put in there, we will accept it,” said Victor Freeman, a security guard and supporter of opposition candidate Tubman, referring to the ballot boxes.”We have seen enough fighting, what we want is peace and prosperity.”

SAN FRANCISCO Oct 12 (Reuters) - Shares of Akamai Technologies Inc jumped more than 11 percent following a report that it was close to being acquired by Google Inc .Akamai, whose service improves the performance of websites, is nearing a deal with search giant Google, according to the late Wednesday report by technology blog Business Insider citing “multiple ad tech sources” who were not identified.Representatives from Google and Akamai said the companies do not comment on rumors.Akamai, whose shares closed Wednesday’s regular session down 57 percent from their 52-week high of $54.65, is a long-running subject of takeover rumors. Last week, there were reports that the company could be acquired by Verizon Communications or International Business Machines Corp , said Mark Kelleher, an analyst with Dougherty & Co.”Ever since I can remember there’s been theories of who could come in” and acquire Akamai, he said.Shares of Akamai rose more than 11 percent following the Google report, before trading up 9.1 percent at $25.45 in extended trading.