European Finance House Launches A Sukuk Mutual Fund

European Finance House (EFH) is delighted to announce the launch of the EFH Global Sukuk Plus Fund with substantial seed capital from its anchor investor, the Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB). The fund is a Luxembourg domiciled mutual fund launched from EFH’s Shari’a compliant platform that invests in the rapidly growing Sukuk market, an asset class that displays excellent investment characteristics. The fund is US Dollar based, actively managed to add value to investors and offers weekly liquidity with a simple, highly transparent and efficient structure. The fund will be targeting a broad range of professional investors who are looking to access this exciting asset class. The fund is targeted to reach USD200m and to carry a yield of 3m US Dollar LIBOR + 600 basis points – very attractive in this low rate environment.

Mark Watts CFA, Head of Asset Management commented ‘Global credit markets are in disarray and by most traditional valuation metrics now look cheap. We are bringing this fund to the market now to enable investors to capture the value embedded in markets in a low cost and flexible way. The fund has been designed to offer investors unparalleled access to the global Sukuk market. The fund will act as an asset allocation tool for institutional and private investors alike. Globally rates are low and we believe that investors can benefit from both the high yield offered by this fund and the good prospects for capital gain. We are excited for the prospects of this fund which is underlined by the support of our anchor investor QIB.’

Salah Al Jaidah, Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) said ‘The continued globalization of QIB and the issuance of the first Global Sukuk Plus fund under the management of European Finance House (EFH), a subsidiary of QIB, acknowledges investor demand for Shari’a compliant products under ethical banking. We are happy to see that EFH has been entrusted with the launch of this fund which will add to its financial strength and allows EFH to capitalize on potential opportunities as the first mover. This launch will also serve to create a template for future fund issuance in UK and Europe and reinforces the commitment of both QIB and EFH to promoting Islamic investment products in Europe.’