CAIRO – Putting Australia on the path to join the booming Islamic finance, a Muslim wealth manager is planning to establish the country’s first Shari`ah-compliant equity fund.

“As the market grows we’ll have more and more companies to invest in,” said Talal Yassime, managing director of Crescent Wealth, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Wednesday, October 5.

Yassime plans to launch a Shari`ah-compliant equity fund early next year.

The Crescent Australian Equity Fund (CAEF) is aimed at allowing Australians to tap into the $1.4 billion Islamic investment market.

“As Australians we have zero of that market,” said Yassime.

He believes that there was a lot of “pent-up demand” for Islamic investment opportunities.

The Islamic equity fund is the first in a number of Shari`ah-compliant products the wealth manager plans to produce.

It plans to launch property and international equity funds by the end of this year.

A fixed income fund is also planned for early next year as well as a superannuation retail product.

Muslims, who have been in Australia for more than 200 years, make up 1.7 percent of its 20-million population.

Bonanza

Yassime hopes that the Shari`ah-compliant fund will help put Australia on right path to get a share of the booming Islamic banking.

“At least 40 percent of the investment universe is not included in our investment universe,” he said.

“We are hopefully giving birth to an elephant.”

Islamic finance is one of the fastest growing sectors in the global financial industry.

The Islamic banking industry, which began almost three decades ago, has made substantial growth and attracted the attention of investors and bankers across the world.

Currently, there are nearly 300 Islamic banks and financial institutions worldwide with assets predicted to grow to $1 trillion by 2013.

Western financial institutions, including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and UBS, are increasingly offering Islamic products.

Islamic banking operates by sharing profit or loss between the bank and its clients, instead of interest, which is forbidden.

Islam forbids Muslims from usury, receiving or paying interest on loans.
Islamic banks and finance institutions cannot receive or provide funds for anything involving alcohol, gambling, pornography, tobacco, weapons or pork.

Source: www.onislam.net