IslamicFinance.de

Ethical investment which has similarities with Islamic based investments has reached US$32 trillion (RM105.6 trillion) in size in the US and the European Unión, according to Nicholas Kaiser, a global investment manager specialising in the issues of ethical and Islamic investment. Though the number of very wealthy Islamic investors in the US were scarce compared to investors in conventional funds, he said his Amana funds are doing very well in the US. The funds attracted American citizens from all backgrounds and Muslim investors are only a small number of the investors in the Amana fund, he added. Nevertheless, it appears that while Amana’s success is the result of the discipline of its Islamic investment nature, investing in Islamic stocks does not necessarily bring profit to the investors.

Nicholas Kaiser, chairman of Saturna Capital Corp., has been managing the shariah-compliant Amana Funds which target Muslim investors in the U.S. since 1994. Mr. Káiser can't invest in companies that derive a significant part of their business from activities unacceptable to the principles of Shariah law. Another challenge is managing his cash because earning interest is prohibited. He currently holds 4.3% of the fund's assets in cash. The fund has a 10-year average annual return of 12.2%. It now has $2.2 billion in assets, and Mr. Kaiser estimates that only about 10% to 12% of investors in it are Muslim.