Dubai-based Shuaa Capital company announced yesterday the launch of three investment funds that comply with the provisions of Islamic Sharia, noting that these funds attracted a total of $75 million (about 275 million dirhams), upon their launch.
The open-ended products, expected to be the largest of their kind, will be domiciled in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the UAE capital’s international financial centre and free zone, the asset management and investment firm said in a bourse filing on Sunday.
One of the funds, the Shuaa High Yield Sukuk Fund, will invest in a diversified portfolio of sukuk instruments, including high-yield sukuk, Shariah-compliant fixed income investments and other collective investment funds.
The other two funds, the Nujoom Aggressive Fund and the Nujoom Balanced Fund, will invest in a global portfolio of Shariah-compliant equities, fixed income investments and money market instruments.
“With the three funds, Shuaa’s aim is to serve institutional clients and its partners in the insurance industry,” said Shuaa, which has $13 billion assets under management (AUM).
The funds will be open to insurance and pension institutional investors with a long-term investment horizon.
According to Jassim Alseddiqi, chief executive officer of Shuaa Capital, the number of Sharia funds available to investors is yet to match the growing demand for Islamic finance products across the world.
“This is because not enough fund managers offer options in the much sought-after Sharia space, and even the funds available either have small AUMs or are close-ended. As a result, the choice of strategies remains limited,” he said.
“The current climate of uncertainty amid the COVID-19 pandemic has created disruption in the global markets, presenting our funds with investment opportunities that would not have been available under normal market conditions,” he added.
Alseddiqi also said that their new funds are designed to give insurance and pension institutional investors more options while also supporting the Islamic investment industry.
Source Zawya