IslamicFinance.de

Cairo-based Ridge Islamic Capital plans to launch the first dedicated Islamic fund of funds in the Middle East by the end of this year, with an initial capital base of $150 million. The Bahrain-domiciled fund will invest across a pool of sharia-compliant funds around the world. Ridge Islamic will contribute $15 million to the fund's capital. The Ridge Islamic fund will be U.S. dollar-denominated and use controls designed to limit risk, including exposure caps by country, sector and asset class. The rules will allow up to 20 percent of the fund's net asset value to be allocated directly into sharia-compliant financial instruments; up to 40 percent of net asset value could go into cash and Islamic money market instruments. The fund has a three-member sharia board with scholars from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.