Investing in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with Baltic Horizon Fund REIT

Baltic Horizon Fund is a regulated closed-end contractual investment fund registered in Estonia. The fund is traded on Tallinn (Nasdaq Baltics)  and Stockholm stock exchanges.

This fund operates under the REIT concept where the vast majority of Fund’s cash earnings are paid and only 20% can be reinvested.

On May 12, I bought some humble 100 shares with Baltic Horizon Fund from my local SEB bank broker in Latvia.

Baltic Horizon Fund stock price chart as of May 12, 2021. source NASDAQ Baltic

Baltic Horizon Fund stock price chart as of May 12, 2021. source NASDAQ Baltic

I've been investing with this fund since 2018, I really like this REIT, because it has quarterly dividend payments (rare in the Baltic) and the dividend yield is pretty high of some 4.5% annually.

I was holding this fund until the start of 2020 but was forced to sell it at the start of Pandemic to cover losses in my US brokerage account where I was facing margin calls. Following words I said when sold it:

I sold because I was facing rough times in my US broker account, I just needed to deposit additional cash to close my negative balance and avoid further margin calls

As said, I'm very sad seeing Baltic Horizon Fund leaving my portfolio now, and I'm looking to take back some shares in the future (hopefully with the same lower prices)

Disclosure: I'm not a financial advisor and I don't give you any advice, I'm just sharing my own experience. Investments in stocks, funds or bonds are risk investments and you could lose some or all of your money. Do your due diligence before investing in any kind of asset. 

The good news - Baltic Horizon Fund (and all the rest of stocks from the NASDAQ Baltic) is available via the Interactive Brokers platform, the bad - commissions are high of some EUR 13 and there are no options for Baltic stocks

Transcript from the YouTube video

Hello! My name is Reinis Fischer and you're watching my YouTube channel, where I talk about stock investments, options trading, and finance in general.

Today is May 12, 2021 and I'm going to talk about my investments in the Baltic states, yeah there are three small countries -  Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. And as I'm from Latvia-  I like to invest in those countries.

There's actually the NASDAQ Baltic stock exchange, this is not a very liquid market but for small investors, with a couple of hundred Euros or a couple of thousands of Euros, it's a pretty good market.  You're not going to lose your money, you're not going to lose your shirt because. like there are no, well probably there are some volatile stocks, but mostly since I have been investing in the Baltic market it has been a good experience.

Right, I will talk about one company I like a lot in the Baltic states, and the company's name is Baltic Horizon Fund. I have been investing with this fund for two or three years I like this company because it's like one of the only REITs in the Baltic states, well there are some other and they also listed on the NASDAQ Baltic stock exchange. But this is quite an awesome and transparent REIT, which operates in a commercial space like they own some shopping centers.  like in Riga they have Galerija Centrs and in Tallinn, they have some and in Vilnius.

When talking about REIT's in North America I'm not so satisfied but when talking about commercial REIT's in the Baltic States, I see that there is some potential for the next five to ten years because in five to ten years, I think this is going to be completely different as it is now. but for right now this is a good way to invest in the Baltic states.

The share price is really cheap, it's like one euro on 18 cents you can if you use the local brokers like SEB bank. I am paying like one euro commission. Commissions are low. well if I'm buying just a hundred shares - it will be one percent but if I'm buying like thousand shares the commissions are good with the local brokers. You can actually buy these stocks via the Interactive Brokers platform but I checked the commissions are much higher it's like 13 Euros buying stocks in the Baltic so this is something NASDAQ Baltic should solve to attract more foreign investors.

What else I like about the Baltic Horizon Fund it's like it's paying a quarterly dividend,  back in  2019 the dividend yield was about some eight percent annually,  the same was in 2020. I guess. but right now the yield dropped about some four and a half percent annual yield, which is still very awesome

I like the stock price s like, I bought 100 shares today and it turns out I bought them just a day before the ex-div date, tomorrow the stock is going x dividend and I will get this small dividend, I will get about one euro, I will get like one euro dividend from my little investment, but that's quite awesome uh i think we can see some the stock has dropped like from its all-time highs 1 euro 30 cents to 1 euro 20 right now I believe this is a fair price and I believe in a year or you know two years we will see some, we should see some gains but as I don't know what's going to happen, i have decided I will invest in this company no matter what, as i will keep buying once in a month 100 shares no matter their price using the so-called dollar or  euro cost averaging method and let's see how it's going to go and yeah

In the past I have held more than 20 Baltic stocks, right now I'm holding just this one plus I am investing in some SEB bank mutual funds but that's another story

If you have some questions please drop me a comment, if you enjoy the content consider subscribing, click the bell icon not to miss any updates, and see you soon see you very very soon ciao