IslamicFinance.de

A significant number of family offices (FOs) of wealthy Middle Eastern patriarchs are looking for suitable investment opportunities while fund managers are seeking to raise capital from this potentially lucrative market. A number of FOs (both Muslim and non-Muslim) have been instructed by their clients to allocate money to investment funds which generally bode well within the context of Shariah principles. Middle Eastern FOs or other direct investors also increasingly demand quality and timely service provision. Therefore, many FOs are interested in Guernsey as a place to allocate investments. On the other hand, the attraction of Guernsey for the fund managers is that it can provide a European platform which is not actually in the EU and therefore can offer flexibility and proportionality.

Investment manager Argyll Investment Services has launched the World Shariah Funds PCC, a Guernsey-based suite of Islamic-compliant investments which will be listed on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange (CISX) and distributed globally.
This is the first time they have come together in a single offering and strict criteria have been applied to the selection of the companies whose shares are held within the funds. From a ‘basket’ of Shari’ah-compliant companies, a selection is made of those whose earnings are most likely to exceed the market average and the result is an actively-managed portfolio intended to outperform an Islamic equity index.
The fund launch follows Argyll’s participation in the Guernsey Finance presence at the Fund Forum Middle East conference in Bahrain last year at which Legis and the fund’s legal advisers, Ogier, were also present.
Stuart Place, of Argyll, delivered a presentation on ‘Innovation vs. Conservatism: How to achieve results in a post-credit-crunch market’ following which the Guernsey parties were introduced to a Middle East fund promoter.