ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 27, 1990                   TAG: 9007270124
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

INVEST EUROPE, ADVISER SAYS

In the three major world securities markets, Herve Van Caloen said, Japanese prices are too high and the U.S. has many problems, while European countries are growing and have "very cheap" stocks.

Van Caloen, vice president and portfolio manager for PaineWebber's new Europe Fund, said Thursday that if he were a Roanoke investor, he would put 10 percent of his savings in Europe because it's "safer, low priced and the countries are growing . . . The economy is in much greater shape and probably more secure than the U.S."

Since the new democracy is opening economic doors, European companies probably will slow their investment in the U.S. because it is easier to expand closer to home, he said in an interview after a talk to a group of Roanoke investors.

His European mutual fund, containing 65 companies from 20 countries, has drawn $180 million in investment since it began in January.

The fund, started on the heels of the Eastern European revolution last fall, has been well received in Roanoke, said Steve Williams, vice president and Roanoke branch manager of PaineWebber.

Van Caloen, 32, a Belgian who earned his MBA at Claremont College in California and stayed in the U.S. to work in investment, said entrepreneurship is reviving in Europe. He said his generation "has a different mentality; they're capitalistic and they want to make money."

Several German, Dutch and British companies have bought companies in Western Virginia.

Van Caloen's fund has 99.5 percent investment in Western European countries but he said East Europe is the new frontier - "it's not the Eastern bloc anymore."

East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia have their best chance in 10 years to catch up with Western Europe, Van Caloen said. 


 by CNB