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Dubai real estate developer Deyaar will launch a series of funds of up to AED 1 bn to buy distressed debt, including its own, as it looks to boost returns for shareholders, reports John Irish on Reuters.

Its first AED 500 million fund is about 60-70 % subscribed by a mix of local and overseas investors and would buy back properties on which investors have defaulted from Deyaar's own portfolio according to the CEO, Giebel.

Deyaar will rent out the units to provide cash flow for the company before selling them once the Dubai property market recovers.

The hedge fund platform Al Safi set up by Barclays Capital is planning Private Equity funds, reported Pratima Desai and Cecilia Valente on Reuters.

BMB Islamic adviced on the Sharia compliant F&C fund observing social responsible investing rules as well.

Gulf Finance House plans to launch a GBP 50 mn UK commercial property fund and a USD 50 mn Sukuk fund in the GCC. The USD 50 mn sukuk fund, to launch in the next two weeks pending regulatory approval, would focus on government, quasi-government, or very stable GCC issues, reported Ulf Laessing and Raissa Kasolowsky on Reuters.

Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME), has delayed one global equity tracker and one emerging markets equities fund as the financial crisis constrains clients in the Middle East according to the CEO, reported Cecilia Valente and Daryl Loo on Reuters. One fund which has been delayed but is now poised to launch later this year with $70 million will aim to exploit a niche market for office space for doctors in the United States. BLME has also raised GBP 50 mn from an institutional investor for a UK property fund and plans to raise GBP 20 mn by June for a pooled UK property fund.

Parsoli Corporation Ltd has informed Bombay Stock Exchange that Mr. Uto Baader, and Ms. Christine Schiedermaier, have resigned as directors of the Company and accordingly they ceased to be directors w.e.f. March 25, 2009.

Esteban Duarte and Neil Unmack reported on Bloomberg on 30 March that European Finance House Ltd. in London, a subsidiary of Qatar Islamic Bank seeks is planning the EFH Global Sukuk Plus Fund, managed by Aleksandar Devic, a former Lehman Brothers credi analyst. The Fund targets USD 200 mn.

EFH’s Luxembourg-based fund is targeting this year a yield of 6 % points more than the 3-m USD LIBOR. The fund will buy sukuk with an average credit rating of A, the sixth-highest investment grade ranking in Standard & Poor’s scale.

Mark Watts is head of asset management at European Finance House an he expects a strong rising Sukuk issuance once capital markets are free again.

I just published an article with the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes Newsletter, giving an overview about the lines of arguments regarding performance and ethical screens, be it Islamic or Sustainability and what empiricial findings have been published.

It is claimed by critics that the reduction of the universe through ethical screens shall reduce the performance, likewise corporate social responsiblity comes against a cost. Similar counterarguments have been raised regarding Islamic screening criteria.

Bank Sarasin published a study doing own research with partners and reviewing published empirical analyses in the literature. It shows that there is no negative impact on performance. My review of empirical analyses in regard to Islamic finance concluded the same and all publications let conclude that ethical screens add value by way of risk management. An example is the debt limitation of the Sharia tolerance criteria.

Ethical screens may therefore improve the investment decision process and more research shall determine, which factors add value to the portfolio and therefore form part of a professional process.

Inovest (previously Al Khaleej Development Company – Tameer), a Bahrain-based shariah compliant investment company, has launched a new water technology venture in partnership with a US company.

The project size is USD 32 mn, from which USD 24 mn will be the net equity, and USD 7.2 mn is being subscribed by Inovest and its technology partner.

The product launch is subject to approval from Central Bank of Bahrain and other statutory approvals, the company added

Inovest CEO is Dr. Khalid Abdulla.

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B.K. SIDHU reported in The Star Malaysia on 30 Marcht that it has won 19 mandeates to raise nearly USD 2.5 bn from the Islamic capital markets and that it is planned to launch a USD 500 mn infrastructure fund. The issuers of the Sukuk are partially situated in the Gulf including a sovereign.

Badlisyah Abdul Ghani is the CIMB Islamic chief executive officer.

Unicorn International Islamic Bank Malaysia Bhd, aims to achieve transactions totalling USD 400 mn to USD 500 mn this year as the demand for medium-sized issuance, especially sukuk and cross-border transactions from small and medium enterprises, continued to be strong with a ticket size of USD 50 to 100. A focus would be on bridging and construction financing, as well as placement of equities and funds.

Unicorn has four business lines – treasury, corporate banking, investment banking, and strategic acquisitions/direct investment.

i-VCAP Management Sdn Bhd announced it has received approval from the Securities Commission to operate as an Islamic fund management company. The firm is doing Islamic fund management under the general licence for some time.

Zainal Izlan Zainal Abidin is the CEO.

Amanie Business Solutions LLC. officially launched its web integrated Shariah stock screening service, the service will target new entrants into the Islamic fund management industry.

The web delivery platform of Amanie Screening can be accessed through http://www.amaniescreening.com . Investors and fund managers will be able to view the details and features of the Shariah Stock Screening service.

Amanie is a Shariah advisory and education company seeking to serve the global Islamic finance community.

Abu Dhabi Investment House shifted its direction in 2008 towards the 'real economy', which includes health, agriculture, communications and clean energy sectors. The company increasingly changed its strategy in 2005, 2006 and 2007 from traditional investment, real estate and financial markets methods included the 'Vision 3' alliance between Abu Dhabi Investment House, Gulf Finance House and Ithmaar Bank.

The goal of the alliance is to benefit from the combined expertise in the identification of investment opportunities within the hospitality, infrastructure and agricultural sectors, including InfraCapital, the GGC's first Islamic investment bank focused on infrastructure and AgriCap, a fund given over to the development of numerous agricultural projects. The AED 400 mn Al Joud fund, the new GCC listed equities fund, performed very well.

Until now, the company did not venture into America or European markets and is considering capitalising on distressed assets in these markets.

The Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX) has employed the consultancy services of the SHAPE™ Financial Corp. SHAPE is a leading specialist in the formation of solutions for Islamic finance markets and will assist the BFX in the development of Sharia compliant Islamic finance products for listing on the Exchange. The initial work will be conducted across Islamic capital markets, Sukuks, REITs, ETFs and Murabaha sectors.

In order to attract Muslim investors to stock markets, Reliance Capital Services has launched in Kanpur the 'Imaan Investment Plan'.

Kuwait News Agency citing that the Moroccan newspaper "Al-Jareeda Al-Oula" reported that three Gulf investment groups have revealed their intention to invest USD 250 mn this year in Morocco, including the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED and the Kuwait Finance House Group (KFH).
In the same context, the newspaper quoted an official from the "ENOCENOC" group of the United Arab Emirates as saying that the group decided to invest USD 150 million to set up an investment project in the northern city of Tangier.

The Executive Director of the ENOCENOC Group Saeed Khoury said the investment will be to build the first phase of the plant in Tangier which is scheduled to enter service in the first quarter of next year.

India has an increasing number of Islamic mutual funds, most recently joined by Benchmark AMC, a fund house that specialises in index-based investing, has recently closed subscriptions for a Shariah-based fund. A similar offering from Taurus Mutual Fund, Taurus Ethical Fund, is currently open for subscription. The Taurus Mutual Fund notices that about 50 % applicants subscribers are non Muslims.

The Islamic funds have since inception outperformed the broader indexes. Nevertheless in current market conditions it is difficult to sell an equity scheme. Benchmark AMC is said to have placed somewhere between Rs 1-1.5 crore.

Shashank Shekhar reported in Emirates Business 24/7 on 11 March that regional fund managers expect the emergence of several new Shariah-compliant funds focused on infrastructure projects, which offer returns in the range of 15 to 18 per cent. Infrastructure projects in sectors like health, agriculture and green energy are expected to attract the bulk of investments.

Zafar and Uves Sareshwala, promoters of broking firm Parsoli Corporation, were debarred by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) after they were found to have fraudulently transferred shares of genuine investors to their own accounts.